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Google and Friends Release Net Neutrality Measuring Tools
angry tapir writes "Google and a group of partners have released a set of tools designed to help broadband customers and researchers measure performance of Internet connections. The set of tools, at MeasurementLab.net, includes a network diagnostic tool, a network path diagnostic tool and a tool to measure whether the user's broadband provider is slowing BitTorrent peer-to-peer (P-to-P) traffic. Coming soon to the M-Lab applications is a tool to determine whether a broadband provider is giving some traffic a lower priority than other traffic, and a tool to determine whether a provider is degrading certain users or applications. 'Transparency is our goal,' said Vint Cerf, chief Internet evangelist at Google and a co-developer of TCP/IP. 'Our intent is to make more [information] visible for all who are interested in the way the network is functioning at all layers.'"
Isn't Dundle Linux doing something with this?
I'm not sure you will be happy; the results of the test may lessen your opportunities to be snarky. According to Glasnost, Comcast is currently throttling 0% of torrent uploads and downloads.
We now have a metric to measure neutrality? Isn't that like having a metric to measure fairness?
"Well, objectively speaking, this deal is ten times more fair for me than it is for you."
Sent from my iPhone
The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems has been developing a similar tool. Glasnost: Test if your ISP is manipulating BitTorrent traffic.
Data pipes are like realty, location location location. I'm in a rural area and a large part of the cost of a T1 is the local loop. The next factor is your type of upstream provider - Tier 1, etc. I can get a Tier 2 T1 for 595. If I was in a city it'd be cheaper but still expensive compared to cable or DSL. Also 1.5Mbps isn't what it used to be.
I just came up for contract renewal on my Sprint T1. One year is about a grand a month, a 3 year term drops it to 895. Do a NxT1 deal and it gets a little cheaper but not much. Still a decent deal compared to the pricing of other Tier 1s out there. In the decade I've had T1s the price has dropped by about 1/3. Local loop has stayed about the same - the ILECs (Verizon in my case) really are out to screw everyone.
So yes you may have some minor choices but telephone and cable are legislated monopolies. It's a losing game to try to compete against a company that you have to use along some point in your delivery to clients. There are obvious exemptions to this but there's a reason there aren't many local ISPs around. Last mile data connection has turned into a monopoly controlled commodity in the US.
A T1 is too slow. You'd need 10 or more, but that would be expensive because you'd be paying retail price for the T1s while trying to operate a commercial scale network.