I got this from a user in WinMX... very, very interesting stuff. I suggest you read and spread it to all your friends too:
PLEASE HELP TO DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO AS MANY WINMX USERS AS POSSIBLE. ADD IT TO YOUR WINMX SHARED FOLDER, AND IF POSSIBLE SET IT TO AUTO-UPLOAD IN MXMONITOR. SEND IT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS TOO. INFORMATION IS POWER.
Revision 1.1 - 2005-11-11
Have you been noticing abnormally slow transfers in Winmx lately ? Does your upload speed goes up and down and you can't keep up a stable transfer with the people you trade ? Chances are that your ISP is throttling the ports used by Winmx. Or even blocking them. Other P2P apps may also be affected.
The MPAA and the RIAA have been pressing honest people all over the world with unfounded legal threats and bluffing to force them to stop sharing or even simply downloading files which they think may present a copyright problem for those companies (even when and if they don't). There is also strong evidence that the Winmx network is being attacked with Distributed Denial Of Service (DDOS) attacks with the injection of thousands of fake files into the network by machines operated at the service of the MPAA and the RIAA... ironically, an illegal practice itself from the same people who claim they want their legal rights protected. Since they can't get the law all in their side overnight with the bribes they pay annually to corrupt judges and politicians, they just take their own deturped notion of justice into their own hands and act like the corporate Mafia of which they are a part, in the form of illegal cohercion methods. That's what you get from greedy corporate scum with low moral standards.
On the other hand, a minority of irresponsible and incompetent ISPs who don't hold up to current Internet service standards are known to take advantage of this situation as a cheap excuse to save on monthly bandwidth traffic by shaping service usage beyond reasonable limits, which result in rendering specific P2P networks un-usable by their customers. Such ISPs are often found not being above of directly lying to any customer who contacts them to know what's going on, because they assume that all their customers are nothing but ignorant idiots who they don't need to respect at all and from whom all they need and want is that vital monhtly payment - even if the service isn't working adequately!
Unfortunately, all this means that everyone using the Winmx network, including all the people who aren't doing anything against the copyrighted material of such companies, will be affected. Even if you're not blocked or throttled yourself, and regardless of what you share and download, you'll come across many users who are and that will prevent you from uploading or downloading from them properly. It also means that the whole Winmx network is operating slower and losing vital primary servers thanks to these illegal acts of vandalism which can be directly classified in legal terms as deliberate DDOS (Distributed Denial Of Service) actions.
There's one thing you can try to help yourself: explore your Winmx menu options and try different UDP and TCP ports from the defaults. You will be able to do this under Incoming TCP Connections and In/Out UDP Packets. Don't just try one, try random numbers inside the 65000 range and see how it goes. Obviously if you're using a firewall or router you may have to open those ports in them as well. You'll have to quit and restart Winmx. Right... is the speed now back to normal ? Congratulations... enjoy. And now you know who's who and who's trying to rob you.
You may not be so lucky if your ISP is one of the few known hardcases such as the infamous Cox in the US, who basically represent all the negative aspects of a truly bad ISP all in one. If you're using one of such ISPs, you should quit them asap if you have even a passable interest in P2P, or simply if you value your basic rights as a customer. Remember, they start with one P2P app, then move on to others, such as eMule, BitTorrent and whatnot - it's not just Winmx in play. Customers shouldn't sit idly while they're being abused like this. If customers sign contracts and pay for a certain monthly bandwidth and traffic, they should be able to use it.
ISPs like these are a fraud and are backstabbing you and robbing you of your interests and rights as a customer, because they're selling what they don't provide, deliberately blocking or throttling P2P ports and packets to stop you from using the Internet properly and from using the bandwidth you payed for. They don't have the right to do that any more than the RIAA and MPAA have the right to use illegal methods to vandalize a public network with millions of innocent users. Phone and email your ISP and let them know you won't stand for it. Expose it to all your friends and other customers of that ISP. Refuse to pay the bills, since the service isn't working properly, and fill a complaint with your local Consumer Service dept. And if you can change to a ISP who doesn't block Winmx, do it. Your wallet is a good incentive to stop ISPs from treating their customers like garbage.
You probably wouldn't give your money to any kind of business or service that deliberately lies to you and tries to steal from you, right ? Why would ISPs be any different ? The bottom line is, a ISP which blocks and throttles network applications and ports and lie to their customers about it, isn't worthy of your trust and money.
PLEASE HELP TO DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO AS MANY WINMX USERS AS POSSIBLE. ADD IT TO YOUR WINMX SHARED FOLDER, AND IF POSSIBLE SET IT TO AUTO-UPLOAD IN MXMONITOR. SEND IT TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS TOO. INFORMATION IS POWER.
