Comcast / Cable ISP detecting # of users - slowdown?

[metroplex]

I heard that some cable ISPs will slow down network access if they detect multiple PCs on one IP address.

I have noticed my cable connection is crawled intermittently... and I know for a fact that Comcast CAN know the number of PCs connected to the router connected to the cable modem just from the cable modem's MAC address.

Is there any way I can block this?

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: metroplex
I heard that some cable ISPs will slow down network access if they detect multiple PCs on one IP address.

I have noticed my cable connection is crawled intermittently... and I know for a fact that Comcast CAN know the number of PCs connected to the router connected to the cable modem just from the cable modem's MAC address.

Is there any way I can block this?

fud...they can only see the directly connected device, not the mac of anything beyond. There are other ways, but mac is not how, and they can only tell (iirc) that a router is plugged in, not a PC

 

[yukichigai]

I'm not sure the myriad of ways Comcast can use to detect your network setup, but as far as I know they'd have spotty luck at best if they actually wanted to figure out how many computers you have connected. Nonetheless they can almost always detect if you have a router hooked up instead of a PC. Then again, routers are becoming so commonplace nowadays that they don't necessarily mean you have multiple computers.

As far as I know none of the major broadband ISPs currently have "one computer per connection" policies, though they have in the past. Check the fine print on your service contract, but I'm almost certain you won't find anything in there.

Also, if you wanted to try to hide the fact that you have multiple computers hooked up your best bet would probably be to build a simple router from a separate computer using Linux or some Server OS. Comcast would almost certainly detect it as a normal PC rather than a router. Whether or not they'd be able to pick up on things like forwarded ports/etc. is unknown, but that would be my suggestion. Not that it should matter.