ISPs should avoid port blocking “unless they have...
ISPs should avoid port blocking “unless they have no reasonable alternatives available for preventing unwanted traffic and protecting users,” said a Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group report. The BITAG report focused on better defining port blocking, an ISP method of…
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identifying Internet traffic through port number and transport protocol “and blocking it entirely.” All traffic associated with a particular combination of port number and transport protocol would be affected by port blocking “regardless of source or destination IP address,” said the report, released Thursday. Although the practice has been an effective tool for wireline and wireless providers for more than a decade, it can potentially be “anti-competitive, discriminatory, otherwise motivated by non-technical factors, or construed as such,” BITAG said. If an ISP determines port blocking is necessary, it should use it only to protect its network and users, not to manage capacity, enforce non-security terms of service or disadvantage competing applications, BITAG said. ISPs should publicly disclose their port blocking policies and provide users with an opt-out provision or exception to port blocking measures if possible, BITAG said. ISPs should also make it possible to receive feedback on port blocking, said BITAG. It said they should regularly revisit their port blocking policies and make their port blocking or firewall rules user-configurable (http://bit.ly/1bDVHiE).