This isn't rocket science. If you HTTPS://www.mybank.ca then the DPI equipment can do exactly the same thing as your browser to get certificates, verify them and decrypt the communication. This is not the same as two peers who have previously exchanged keys and begin with an already encrypted connection. On those, the DPI equipement wouldn't be able to decrypt on the fly. I suggest you read up on SSL.  SSL uses Diffie-Hellman key exchange to generate a unique session key for each connection.  Effectively, the two peers start with an already encrypted connection. Hypothicaly an attacker can go to the same IP address and port it sees you going to, but that would be a new connection with a new negotiated session key.  It can never get the session key for the original connection that way. ____________________________________________________________________ Gardner Buchanan                         gbuchana(a)teksavvy(dot)com                                  FreeBSD: Where you want to go. Today.

Or do those questions depend on where in Ontario I am, or which CO I'm connected through? I doubt if it makes much difference where you are. Throttling would be _base_d on the time of day, which it was when I used to see it

And is this BT throttling (and the associated BT data-rate targets as listed above) independent of any other non-BT data bandwith I might be using on my connection at the same time (viop, video streaming, web-surfing, etc) ? Yes, as long as Bell doesn't erroneously get some of your other data (such as secure FTP).

I suggest you read up on SSL.  SSL uses Diffie-Hellman key exchange to generate a unique session key for each connection.  Effectively, the two peers start with an already encrypted connection. If my browser is able to connect to some HTTPS server, and connect to a certificate authority to validate the server's credentials, then the DPI equipment can peek at both connections and emulate the client in terms o decrypting the connection. In the case of Bell, the DPI equipment has not yet been programmed to generate content (Roger's has). Inserting or changing content in an SLL connection would be much more diffidult. But peeking into one without changing it is easier.

I am an infrequent BT user.  When I do torrent, the material that I download is such that I usually don't see more than 5 to 10 seeds I am like you. And it is extremely frustrating to have a slow feed being slowed to a crawl by Bell. My point was that I usually don't reach the 30 or 60 kb/sec limits when I torrent, so I'm wondering what is really limiting my connection.  Are you saying that Bell throttling happens all the time - or only when my BT traffic reaches / exceeds 30/60 kb/sec? And are we talking about UL/DL combined cap at 30/60 kb/s, or separate?

(...) Do you have any comment about Tek Savvy's mlppp offer of $4/month? I thought any end-user could, with enough hardware tinkering, could establish an mlppp connection themselves, without needing to pay their ISP an extra fee.  Am I wrong?