Recent Network Management News:

DNSSEC Rollout Begins

Details

Published on Monday, October 18, 2010

As noted on our blog, starting today we will begin migrating customers who have opted out of our Domain Helper service over to our production DNSSEC-validating servers. This will happen first in a selected part of our Virginia network, and will later expand to all markets in the following sixty days, at which point all of our customers who have opted out of Domain Helper will be migrated. After this has been completed, we will migrate the rest of our customers, which we anticipate will stretch into the early part of 2011. To understand what will happen when a DNSSEC validation failure occurs, see this validation failure FAQ. You may also want to check out this brief introductory video about DNSSEC, as well as our Constant Guard™ page. We've also updated all of our DNSSEC FAQs here.

Constant Guard™ Bot Detection and Notification National Rollout Begins

Details

Published on Thursday, September 30, 2010

In October 2009, we announced the market trial of our new Constant Guard™ bot detection and notification system. The system was designed to detect bot activity and send customers a "Service Notice" when we believe their computer has been infected with a bot or other malware. Based on the success of the market trial, we have decided to rollout the bot detection and notification system to our entire network over the next few months. For additional information, feel free to visit our blog post or our Constant Guard™ page.

DNSSEC Update - .ORG TLD Signed, All Comcast .ORG Domains Signed

Details

Published on Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Today in Brussels, the Public Interest Registry, operator of the .ORG Top Level Domain (TLD), announced that they have signed the .ORG TLD, enabling support for DNSSEC in that TLD. Coinciding with that announcement and joint testing we have performed with PIR, Comcast is pleased to sign all of our over 650 .ORG domains. This is an important milestone in our continuing work to deploy DNSSEC. You can learn more about this on the Comcast DNSSEC Information Center website at http://www.dnssec.comcast.net and you can find slides we will be presenting at two ICANN DNSSEC workshops tomorrow here and here.

Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group Announced

Details

Published on Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Comcast, along with other leading high-tech companies, announced the formation of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group, or 'BITAG' for short. The BITAG will focus on network management issues, among other topics. For more information, please see a post on our blog here.

DNSSEC Implementation Plans Announced

Details

Published on Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Comcast has been a leader in testing of and advocating for the wide adoption of DNSSEC. Our leadership continues today with the announcement of a plan to implement DNSSEC validation in the DNS servers that our customers use by the end of 2011, as well as for signing of our authoritative domains, such as comcast.com, by the end of the first quarter of 2011. In addition, today we are making available DNSSEC-validating DNS servers for customers to use on a trial basis now. You can learn more about this on the Comcast DNSSEC Information Center website at http://www.dnssec.comcast.net.

IPv6 Technical Trials for 2010 Announced

Details

Published on Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Comcast has been a leader in IPv6 development for many years. Our leadership continues today with the announcement of a plan to conduct real, production-network trials of IPv6 technology this year. The transition from IPv4 addresses to IPv6 addresses is a necessity, as the available pool of IPv4 addresses will at some point be exhausted for all Internet users.

These trials will help Comcast to identify and solve any areas of difficulty involved in the transition to IPv6, and to determine what approach will be the easiest and most seamless to our customers. Comcast will continue to share what we learn with the Internet community, particularly with the IETF, for the benefit of other users of the Internet.

Customers who are interested in volunteering to participate in these IPv6 trials, can express their interest using the online form on the Comcast IPv6 Information Center website, at http://www.comcast6.net.

Data Usage Meter Pilot Market Deployment

Details

Published on Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Today we announced the start of a pilot market deployment of our data usage meter for our High-Speed Internet Service. This deployment begins today for customers in Portland, Oregon. We currently anticipate deploying this usage meter beyond the pilot market beginning in the first quarter of 2010. You can find FAQs here, and an independent analysis of the usage meter by NetForecast, Inc. here. The usage meter looks like this. Feel free to visit our customer support forums if you'd like to ask us more questions.

Comcast Participates in MIT Internet Traffic Analysis Study

Details

Published on Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The MIT Internet Traffic Analysis Study (MITAS) is a new research project at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence laboratory (CSAIL). The goal of this project is to undertake novel empirical research of ISP traffic data. Data will be collected from at least six participating ISPs, including Comcast, and the project hopes to add more ISPs. Better data and collection methodologies are needed to inform the industry, the network research community, and policy discussions about appropriate technical and business approaches to traffic management.

Detailed traffic data will be collected from ISPs over time, enabling researchers to formulate empirically valid characterizations of both aggregate traffic patterns, as well as a traffic profile for the average users. It is important to note that no personally identifiable information about any participating ISPs' users will be used in this project.

More information about the MITAS research project can be found at the MITAS website, at http://mitas.csail.mit.edu.