TechBits

The Norman Transcript

March 29, 2008 12:38 am

— File sharers get help spotting ISP interference
NEW YORK -- Vuze Inc., a California-based company that provides a popular file-sharing program, is giving its users a tool to help figure out if their Internet service provider is interfering with their traffic.
The Associated Press last year confirmed user reports that Comcast Corp., the country's largest cable company, was secretly disrupting some file-sharing by its subscribers. The company has acknowledged the practice and said it's necessary to curb traffic that otherwise would slow Internet speeds for other subscribers.
The "plug-in" Vuze made available as a free download last weekend looks for "reset packets," the tool Comcast uses to break off some connections with computers trying to download files from Comcast subscribers, Vuze said Wednesday.
The plug-in works with Vuze's main application, Azureus, which is based on the BitTorrent file-sharing technology. If the user allows it, the plug-in will send data back to Vuze, which will collect information about ISPs that are interfering with their subscribers' traffic.
Palo Alto-based Vuze said Azureus has been downloaded 20 million times, and an average of 1.3 million users are using at any one time.
Many U.S. ISPs -- and cable companies in particular -- acknowledge they are managing traffic. But most apparently apply more subtle methods that would not be identified by the Vuze plug-in.

Vietnam memorial wall now searchable on the Internet
NEW YORK -- Family and friends of servicemen and women who died or vanished in the Vietnam War no longer have to travel to Washington to pay their respects at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
An interactive version debuts online this week, a project of historical document archive site Footnote.com in conjunction with the National Archives and Records Administration.
The virtual version of the memorial -- which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties -- is searchable.
Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran's service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war.
Footnote.com Chief Executive Russ Wilding hopes the site will develop into an online community for veterans, family and friends to pay tribute and share their thoughts.
"The memorial is a historical document that obviously is very emotional," he says. "We want the site to help people come together to remember the veterans who were lost."
More than 2,000 photos were taken of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall to create the online version, Wilding said. He said the resulting image is the equivalent of 460 feet wide and the largest of its kind on the Web.

Company tempts cell carriers with software
NEW YORK -- Here's a cool use for a phone that has both cellular broadband and Wi-Fi: Turn it into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot so your friends can surf the Internet on their laptops.
A couple startups have created and made available software like this in the last year. But a more established software maker said Wednesday that it has created a package for carriers to offer their customers.
TapRoot Systems Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., said it was talking with carriers about providing their customers with the software, which would let up to five Wi-Fi users connect to a phone.
A possible free trial version would let only one Wi-Fi user connect to the phone at a time.
The software works on phones with Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 software. Windows phones are common in the U.S., while Symbian is championed by Nokia Corp. and more common in Europe. There already is an independent program called WMWifirouter that turns Windows phones into hotspots, and there's one called JoikuSpot for Nokia phones.
Capacity is limited on third-generation cellular broadband networks, and carriers are somewhat restrictive of the applications they allow, for fear their networks will be overwhelmed.
TapRoot's system attempts to assuage that fear by letting carriers control access through a server, said Chief Executive Bob Bicksler. The carriers could then charge extra for the service, he said.
Not many phones have both 3G and Wi-Fi. U.S. carriers have in some cases removed or disabled Wi-Fi antennas for the U.S. launches of some phones by overseas manufacturers, apparently because they fear customers would be less likely to pay for 3G. However, combined Wi-Fi and 3G phones are becoming more common.
Bicksler mentioned AT--T Inc.'s Tilt and 8525 models and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Mogul by HTC as phones that would work as mobile hotspots.
-- AP