Full disclosure: I work with one VPN service provider, but there's others out there and the following applies to all of them.

As others have said, a foolproof and guaranteed solution to your ISP messing with (or reading, or sending copies to the NSA *cough* ATT *cough*) your internet traffic is to use a VPN service. A VPN allows you to encrypt all of the traffic coming into and out of your computer, before it leaves your computer, and "tunnel" it through your ISP to a safer destination where it is de-crypted and dropped unmolested into the larger internet cloud.

Passing laws to prevent traffic shaping (err, "management") is a scary solution. One, more laws means more lawyers, etc. Two, laws need a government that actually obeys them - and Baby Bush's eight-year reign has been a perfect example showing that even in this country we can't always take that as a given.

Take matters into your own hands. For about ten bucks extra a month, you can get guaranteed, unlimited bandwidth VPN service that makes this Comcast-style nonsense impossible technically. And don't imagine Comcast is the only carrier doing this - or that they're only messing with PtoP traffic. . . that's just where they've been caught. If they've been caught once, how many other shady things are they (and other cable/telco companies) doing?

A good VPN service prides itself on tight security, unfettered bandwidth, and a connection into the internet from a safe, reliable jurisdiction (we use the Netherlands, others are based in Sweden, etc.). Our economic incentive is 100% aligned with providing transparent, secure, unmolested IP throughput - we don't have any reason to do anything but pass packets, period.

There's good VPN software out there that's opensource and free - and as others said there's even free VPN services but their speed tends to be hit and miss. Do you trust bog companies to respect your internet usage requirements even when their economic incentive is to do otherwise?

Just my $0.03,

Fausty / CTO

golden security systems

These young women are a bit thin-skinned to be out in the networked world, aren't they? Perhaps this is new to them, but people say absolutely horrible, untrue, angry, scary things all the time on this thing we call the "internet." It's been true for as long as I've been on it (coming on 20 years), and it's unlikely to change.

If I kept a list of the things said about me, for example, in those years it'd fill volumes and be stuffed with heaps of actionable slander, threats, and all the rest. Flamewars have always bred nasty comments, and there's an entire world of Keyboard Courage heroes out there. I've been stalked and harassed online many times.

The best response? Nothing. Chasing the trolls is like chasing ghosts: frustrating, pointless, and in the end playing right into the trolls' hands. About 99.9999% of online "threats" are hot air. Over-reacting to them gives them more weight than they deserve.

Hiring lawyers and dragging ISPs into civil litigation over snippy comments on a discussion site is worse than pointless. Those who are active online simply need to develop a bit of thick skin, and accept that anonymous trolls can (and will) say nasty things sometimes. It doesn't matter, not one bit. Nobody's not going to hire you because a troll said you might have herpes. . . seriously.

These posting are just the words that used to be shared in little friendly chats whilst people gossiped about those they fear or envy: "did you hear what she's been up to. . . I heard she's a total slut!" That stuff is as old as human language, and it's migration to the net is merely a shift in venue. Yes, the whole world can see those nasty comments online, instead of just the few gossipy nags in the old days. That's just the way it goes - part of the interconnected world.

Stop with the lawsuits. Grow up, develop some self-confidence, and learn to ignore unhappy people and let them stay in their unhappy world all by themselves. You'll drive yourself crazy chasing around the web after every dirty little rumor someone has spread about you - it's a Quixotic quest.

Peace,

Fausty (& Friends)