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Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

community.spotify.com

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Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think P2P applications have a significant security risk. Specifically, I don't think the security industry at large considers P2P to be inherently risky. If you trust Spotify like you trust say, Google Chrome, or Microsoft Outlook, or any of the other apps you run on your machine, the fact that one or more of them uses P2P in no way further raises your risk profile.

The only security risk it needs to be is to blind us from other security risks. That can be accomplished by its behavior in the network monitoring tool (many malware applications behave very similarly in a p2p fashion) or by putting us at risk of running over the amount of traffic we're licensed for in any of our tools. We're not in the business of buying licenses to support a program we explicitly disallow, so inste…

If bandwidth is the only issue, then it's not really a security risk, persay. China, for example, isn't going to own your network because you have a P2P client running somewhere.

I do get what you're saying about P2P filling up your network monitoring logs, though I would argue that the monitoring software might not be properly configured if such is the case. I don't know all that much about network monitoring tools though, so I don't know the specifics. I do know that it's possible to run a secure network and have P2P clients on that network, however.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#132
I run the little snitch firewall application on OS X and noticed this literally the first time Spotify ran (tip, EVERYONE running on mac should use this app, it's incredibly interesting to have a window into exactly what every application on your system is connecting to).

It's almost laughable the amount of connections it attempts to make to outside clients.

Anyways, the solution for me is simply to block all outgoing traffic to spotify that isn't directly to its streaming servers. Problem solved, no more outside peers eating up my upstream bandwidth.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be honest, I tried Rdio and didn't get where the "music discovery" part comes in. In the month I used it I was only suggested completely unrelated, but obviously 'featured' albums (on their "frontpage" so it wasn't even on my face.) All in all, I just didn't find the service that interesting unless you consider the technological angle.

Music discovery does suck on Rdio, granted. I find myself using other services for that. But for daily listening, the experience is much cleaner than Spotify's is, IMO.

Yep, that's true. I had a bunch of issues with their 'native' OS X app though. Every now and then the embedded browser (I think that's what they do anyway) would go nuts and eat my whole CPU. Also, the streaming quality didn't sound that great. I regularly use Grooveshark, and the quality of the songs over there was much better.

All in all, I guess it might work for some people. It just didn't make the cut for me. For that matter, neither did Spotify or Pandora. I guess I'm just not the target audience for that kind of service in general.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#134
post #47

I commonly stream Spotify on my MacBook while tethering via my iPhone at coffee shops. Little did I know I was paying $10/GB to let others listen to music. Thanks, Spotify, thanks.

If you listen off of the mobile app, it's not p2p. I would recommend that if your phone is right next to your computer

absolutely. easy enough solution now that I know this obscure piece of technical information.

I don't see anybody offering to refund my lost bandwidth, though.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#135

My main problem with this is that Spotify utilizes the full upstream bandwidth, causing the latency to go up dramatically on connections where the upstream is limited. If they were just a little bit intelligent and limited the streaming to 90% of the available bandwidth I'd be okay with it since that wouldn't affect the latency. Question: What is the best way to traffic shape all upstream connections on OS X? I've tr…

If you have a recent (>=10.7) version, pf [0] is installed. pf is a more capable firewall than ipfw, and can shape upstream connections in a number of ways. As an example of what it can do, the Network Link Conditioner [1] is built using pf. The version in OS X is not the most recent version in OpenBSD, but that FAQ is a good start, and the man page [2] can fill in the details.

0: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/

1: http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/25/network-link-conditioner-i...

2: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin...

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. I was just about to say. This is hackers do it. Sniff out the traffic and block really selectively. My concern woud be: Am I violating TOS when i don't share bandwidth?

Good point. You can go to jail for that; it makes you a felon.

Is that a joke or serious statement? Can't tell thanks to Poe's law.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sucks is that here at work (I work in corporate information security), we have developers who love to listen to music when they're programming. I support it. I like listening to music too. The problem is, some of them like Spotify. And since Spotify is peer-to-peer (and p2p applications are against the policy), it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I have to make that action…

> it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I have to make that action stop Or... get your security monitoring tool to stop reporting legitimate P2P protocols as a security threat.

Sure, you just write the tool that can audit encrypted traffic from Skype or Spotify in real time and check that it's legitimate as opposed to a malicious program impersonating their protocols.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#138
post #90

I ditched this service when they paused ads while I muted.

Seriously? You're given an entire library of music for free, all you have to do is put up with the occasional ad between songs.

The ads on spotify really are unacceptably annoying imo.

And it's not like spotify is the only way of getting music for free

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sucks is that here at work (I work in corporate information security), we have developers who love to listen to music when they're programming. I support it. I like listening to music too. The problem is, some of them like Spotify. And since Spotify is peer-to-peer (and p2p applications are against the policy), it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I have to make that action…

> it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I have to make that action stop Or... get your security monitoring tool to stop reporting legitimate P2P protocols as a security threat.

"Legitimate" depends a lot on the environment. Should Spotify be pushing bits out to the world from your doctors PC? Should it be accepting inbound connections from other random people around the world?

Now answer the same two questions after an exploit in the P2P library within Spotify is announced on HN.

Re: Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming?

#140
In terms of this being HackerNews: It is actually a pretty smart and economic idea to use P2P in music streaming clients. When I first heard about this, I was excited. Thumbs up, Spotify!

Apart form that, that's really no news, you could read about that for years.

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