Google Wants To Help People Check Their Broadband Connection For Traffic Shaping

from the name-and-shame-is-the-game dept

Wed, Jan 28th 2009 1:20pm — Mike Masnick

Well, well, well... With Cox getting aggressive with traffic shaping, it looks like Google is trying to give users the tools to find out what their ISP is actually doing to their broadband connection. The company has teamed up with the New America Foundation and Planet Lab to offer a platform for tools to measure what's happening on internet connections. The obvious thinking: the easier it is for anyone to recognize that their broadband connection is being tinkered with, the more likely an outcry is raised, and the provider is pushed to back down (at least on the more egregious practices -- such as what eventually happened with Comcast's traffic shaping).

It will be interesting to see where this goes, or how useful it really becomes. Without meaningful competition in the broadband space, it seems like ISPs are willing to risk some consumer anger -- knowing they really don't have many other options. Still, it does suggest one more reason why specific net neutrality regulations may be premature. Let's see if providing more info along with open tools can help keep ISPs more reasonable in their network management practices.

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Filed Under: tools, traffic shaping
Companies: google

31 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2009 @ 1:38pm

the height of irony... .
... is that traffic shaping is stopping me from visiting these sites....
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Lenny Rachitsky, 28 Jan 2009 @ 1:50pm

Google trying to make the Internet more transparent
The more open, neutral, and transparent the net is, the more successful everyone will be online, the bigger the web will get, and most importantly for Google...the more ad's they'll be able to serve.
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- Nate, 28 Jan 2009 @ 5:47pm
  
  Re: Google trying to make the Internet more transparent
  Well it just seems more and more like Google's interests and the consumers' interests overlap, doesn't it? Strange... Keep running those Google searches for our righteous benefactor! Hah...
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anon, 28 Jan 2009 @ 1:56pm

measurementlab.net seems to be down.
measurementlab.net seems to be down.
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Norm, 28 Jan 2009 @ 1:59pm

The is not responding
The site with the tools is http://www.measurementlab.net/

It seems that this is a major concern to a lot of people, because these tools are a little overloaded. The site did not respond the first two times I tried it. When I actually got to one of the tools, the first out of 3 servers for the tool had an approx. 8 HOUR wait. The least busy server, the one I am queued in, has about 1.25 hour wait.

wow.
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- Norm, 28 Jan 2009 @ 2:02pm
  
  The site is not responding
  Fixed Subject
  
  Also, they are using java applets. They didn't load in Firefox, but that might just be my machine.
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Clovenlife, 28 Jan 2009 @ 2:03pm

Not Down
Just a bit overwhelmed. I got it with a bit of persistence
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2009 @ 2:19pm

So is MeasurmentLabs.net down, or does my ISP not want me visiting it
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TPBer, 28 Jan 2009 @ 2:39pm

Very Nice
Just verified Time Warner is running clean, but I already suspected this.

Not to get off of the subject, but I have noticed an increase of screeners on all torrent trackers, you gotta wonder if the studios are purposely putting these out there as promotional bait to increase theater "goership", that's a new word.
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- ToySouljah, 28 Jan 2009 @ 6:34pm
  
  Re: Very Nice
  Nah, every year this happens around awards time since the studios have to release more screeners to judges for their consideration.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2009 @ 3:27pm

The bittorrent test is worthless, I know for a fact that Bell are throttling to 30kb/s (they announced publicly, and have experienced it) yet it claims my traffic is not shaped...

I hope other tests are more reliable...
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 28 Jan 2009 @ 5:36pm

Still hammered
I can get the initial page, but nothing after that.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Jan 2009 @ 8:28pm

kodos Google for the effort, Power to the people!
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Ben (profile), 29 Jan 2009 @ 3:48am

Slashdotted
Unfortunately, most of the test sites seem to be flooded with activity... these tools have been mentioned on slashdot.org, need I say more?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 4:55am

i am disapointed in TechDirt
i posted the link to google's anti-trafic shaping tool in ur article concerning cox trafic shaping.

with he subject: google back in the game.

now i see you have an article about it and my comment in http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090128/0123343551.shtml

isn't there any more
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 9:20am
  
  Re: i am disapointed in TechDirt
  im really sry about this it seems i posted my comment in an other article plus it seems it was after you had mentioned it here.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:31am

So what if the ISP's are throttling? With no net neutrality laws, you can't do shit to them. And besides, with the government in their back pocket, even with laws they would be untouchable.
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Michael Thomas, 29 Jan 2009 @ 12:01pm

Forget torrents the real problem throttling presents is to those of us who enjoy watching videos online. The truth is that some providers like Comcast are afraid at the real threat that sites like Hulu are posing as many customers are ditching cable subscriptions for online video. The amount of content online is larger and easier to search than cable... Top 20 Video Sites: http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/video-sites
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Jan 2009 @ 6:19am

Throttling
Throttling isn't always bad. Cox 'claims' to only want to apply throttling against FTP/P2P/Bulk-transfers only during times of congestion. This is supposively so all that over-subscription don't lag your video-games/video-streams/latency-sensitive applications during peak hours.

OMG QQ, I can't play my games at 5pm because of masssive lag

OMG QQ, my p2p is slow around 5pm, but my games run fine
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ert, 14 Aug 2010 @ 3:34pm

won
dfgdf
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jerry philip, 14 Aug 2010 @ 3:39pm

Travel Help
Is traffic shaping has any danger because of using the broadband? Is it really?
-------
Travel Help
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2010 @ 9:44pm

We offer web marketing, Search Marketing solutions to UK businesses looking to promote their websites on the internet and through the search engines.
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james, 29 Nov 2010 @ 11:34pm

spy equipment - Whatever your reason for visiting our site, we want you to know that we are dedicated to providing you with the very latest in cutting-edge solutions to assist in resolving your issues.
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backspace (profile), 8 Dec 2010 @ 9:16pm

The obvious thinking: the easier it is for anyone to recognize that their broadband connection is being tinkered with, the more likely an outcry is raised, and the provider is pushed to back down (at least on the more egregious practices irs problems | income tax attorneys
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Kohhsamui, 18 Dec 2010 @ 8:54pm

Google Wants To Help People Check Their Broadband Connection For Traffic Shaping
Great ++
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Dec 2010 @ 8:55pm
  
  Re: Google Wants To Help People Check Their Broadband Connection For Traffic Shaping
  rhinoplasty
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Sam Orton, 30 Mar 2011 @ 11:17am

Thats not very viable!
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Sam Orton, 30 Mar 2011 @ 11:20am

Thats not very viable!
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dipakdas, 15 Feb 2012 @ 11:19pm

Muje ek samsung galaksi y chahi e
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Franklyn Galusha, 10 Jan 2013 @ 11:03am

We have road runner as our provider here in Orlando Florida. I hadn't been two dissatisfied with their service however I'm going to try Google's tools and I'll get back to you with my findings.
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john, 29 Mar 2017 @ 3:42am

Currnet
The more open, neutral, and transparent the net is, the more successful everyone will be online, the bigger the web will get, and most importantly for Google...the more ad's they'll be able to serve.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]