A reader writes, "A very short thread on Apple's website notes that Rogers/Shaw ISPs in Canada are blocking podcast downloads because of a policy against multiple downloads."
Over the past month Rogers (ISP) in Canada has put some software on their networks that prevents activity for BitTorrents, P2P, IRC, and also along with that is a rule that if you are trying to download a large media file from more then 1 server it will be dropped. When you download a Podcast from iTunes it downloads that file from multiple servers in the background (I confirmed this by watching my cable modem logs). As soon as it tries to use more than 2 different servers for the download, it just stops. That's the reason why Podcast downloads stop at random places – it's the point where a 2nd server is involved in the download. The same issue causes timeouts and cut-offs in the iTunes music store.
Here is the problem – when anyone calls Rogers about the problem they say it is either a router, firewall or Apple problem and they shrug you off.
Hundreds or thousands of people in Canada can no longer get Podcasts or purchase music from the iTunes Music store. This is BAD. Please, Apple, contact Rogers and sort it out. So many people have called Rogers with no luck.
Update: Three readers have written to say that they can't reproduce this error, or that it only occurs intermittently for them. It may be that Rogers is fine-tuning its packet-shaping app to catch fewer false positives from the iTunes server.
Update 2: Scott sez, "Here's an old Shaw Ellacoya.pdf">press-release about protocol filtering software. From what I understand, they are not so much filtering/stopping/blocking downloads as much as capping the bandwidth available to certain protocols (ie BitTorrent)." So, basically, Shaw isn't trying to break iTunes. They're trying to break other legit services like Prodigem and Commonbits. Breaking iTunes is just a unhappy accident.
Update 3: Jeff sez, "I produce a podcast called A Foot In The Crease which covers hockey in Toronto and around the NHL. A few weeks ago we had celebrated the mark of a thousand listeners a week. Since that time, however, we have seen a sharp and inexplicable decline in our weekly audience to about a quarter of what it was. Until I saw your post this morning about this new stealth Rogers/Shaw policy, I had no idea what could be causing our problems. I am a Rogers subscriber and have personally experienced the podcast downloading problem in iTunes for our own show and other podcasts exactly as described.
"The decline in our podcast audience coincided directly with the time in which I began experiencing this problem personally. It stands to reason that a podcast about hockey in Toronto would have a large number of people listening using Rogers as an ISP due to their market-share. It is very discouraging that a backwards-thinking policy such as this has really put a damper on all our hard work and is likely hurting many other small growing podcasters as well. It is shameful that these ISPs think they can do something like this and shows complete disregard for both their customers and for podcasters."
