Comcast owns and regulates Xfinity. People are facing problems with Comcast Xfinity services. The company has been targeted to be throttling the internet. Throttling means an intentional decrease in internet speed while using some applications. Some applications have been found lacking in speed. Although Comcast has admitted to carrying out throttling in the past and has now stopped as confirmed by the company recently. The customers are still doubting the speed of the internet while using certain sites like Youtube and Netflix. Comcast used throttling when there were other ways to manage data traffic. 

How to test if Comcast Xfinity is throttling services? 

Bandwidth Throttling is the intentional restraint of the speed of communication of outgoing or ongoing data in a network device.  

To notice and find out if the internet is being throttled users can use three ways; 

a)Internet speed test.

b)Internet health test.

c) Wehe App. 

Internet speed test

Plug a computer into the modem and run a speed test, then open a virtual private network (VPN) and rerun the test. If the speed after using VPN is notably faster this shows that the internet is being throttled. Use tools like speedtest.net or testmy.net and hit ‘go’. Note down the speed result and go for the retest. Notice the variation and you will find out if your ISP is throttling. 

Internet health test

 It measures problems between interconnection points. Under this test, speed measurements are run from your ISP across various interconnection points, and throttled performance is detected if there are any. To conduct the test, visit www.internethealthrest.org and press ‘go’ to run the test. If the variation I quite high then it is confirmed that Comcast is throttling. To get more accurate results take more tests and analyze the report. 

Wehe App

 The Northeastern University researchers have emerged with a solution to test if your ISP is throttling. It is created to check if the ISP is throttling popular apps like YouTube, Spotify, Skype, and Vimeo. It is a nifty tool called ‘Wehe’. It tests the speed of the apps in question with other apps on the user’s device. An inconsistency shows that the ISP is throttling speed. It is available for both Android and iOS. 

Use Wehe to see if Comcast is throttling the internet, follow the following steps: 

Download the application for mobile devices. Ensure the wifi connectivity. Launch the app and read all the terms and conditions carefully.  Click on Accept if you are ok and ready to give your concern.  Select ‘Run Tests’ from the menu.  Choose the app which needs to be checked and unselect all other apps.  Then hit the ‘Run Tests’ button.  For checking previous tests’ results choose Previous Results from the menu button.  

Each app requires a certain time to complete the process, make sure to choose the app which is needed urgently. After that wait for the result. Although this app is only for research purposes, it does collect some information to process. There is a possibility of visibility of your IP address to researchers, it is anonymized after the research. 

Why does Comcast Xfinity throttle the internet? 

There are several reasons why Comcast throttles the internet. This is done to manage network traffic. But it becomes problematic when ISPs start discriminating against specific users. In 2010, Comcast was unfairly targeting p2p network users. It is one of the core principles of net neutrality that the ISPs must not discriminate against users. Comcast has been throttling the internet in the usage of high-data apps like Netflix, and YouTube. It might also throttle because of the excessive bandwidth use, it usually happens when there is high-time torrent streaming. Comcast has accepted the internet throttling and had ensured the users do not repeat it. However, many users still complained about the throttling happening from Comcast Xfinity.  

There are several legal reasons why Comcast throttles the internet; 

Net NeutralityControlling network congestion, during maximal time especially.  To enforce data limits. To prevent DDoS attacks.  

How to bypass throttling?

According to the statistics, about 87% of U.S.A ISPs involved in throttling are monitoring logs of users. Following the Neutrality Bill, it has become legal.

The research finds out that using the fastest and most dependable Virtual Private Network (VPN) can bypass the throttling speedily. VPN is the perfect tool to restrict throttling. It works by changing the ISP and assigning the new temporary IP address, with which the user can easily bypass ISP filters and acquire the internet with no limitation. With its extraordinary encryption capabilities, it encrypts the data traffic and way it through an external VPN server from the user’s ISP that is undetectable.  Some of the VPNs mentioned below;

NordVPN. ProtonVPN. ExpressVPN.  

Final Thoughts

Despite what the reason is, slow internet speed is infuriating. There can be other reasons than Comcast Xfinity throttling which is causing hindrance in internet speed instance, outdated router, background downloading, virus and malware. Get it updated and enjoy high speed internet. Although throttling is legal, it is problematic for the users. 

Q1 Is internet throttling legal? 

Yes. There are laws for it. 

Q2 How to escape a throttle.

Use a VPN. It helps to avoid content-based throttling.