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EFF Offers New Tool To Test ISP Interference
New open source, command line software dubbed Switzerland

On the heels of today's relatively toothless "sanction" against Comcast, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a new tool to help consumers check for ISP skulduggery. Dubbed "Switzerland," the open source tool is part of the EFF's Test Your ISP Project, and is being developed to give consumers a simple way to determine whether their ISP is quietly tinkering with application traffic. Switzerland looks beyond TCP reset packets and web page modifications, testing for ISP management of all applications, not just P2P. From the EFF:

quote:
Part of EFF's "Test your ISP" project, Switzerland is an open source, command-line software tool designed to detect the modification or injection of packets of data by ISPs. Switzerland detects changes made by software tools believed to be in use by ISPs such as Sandvine and AudibleMagic, advertising systems like FairEagle, and various censorship systems. Although currently intended for use by technically sophisticated Internet users, development plans aim to make the tool increasingly easy to use.
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While the FCC and media focused their attention on Comcast, I've previously noted that Cox uses a very similar packet forgery technique to throttle P2P traffic. Interestingly, Cox flew completely under the media radar -- simply by never lying about it. Other Internet-based packet forgery tests, such as Germany's Max Planck Institute's Glasnost Project, suggest that Cox and Comcast certainly aren't alone.

"Until now, there hasn't been a reliable way to tell if somebody -- a hacker, an ISP, corporate firewall, or the Great Firewall of China -- is modifying your Internet traffic en route," says EFF staff technologist Peter Eckersley. "The few tests available have been for narrow and specific kinds of interference, or have required tremendous amounts of advanced forensic labor. Switzerland is designed to make general-purpose ISP testing faster and easier."

Unfortunately it looks like Switzerland (download here) is still in alpha stage, and isn't quite simple enough yet for your grandmother to use. For those of you in the mood to tinker with it, please dump your feedback into the comment section below. With increased scrutiny and simpler user testing tools, it's likely the network neutrality debate will quickly shift from covert throttling to metered billing.
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ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

2 edits

ninjatutle

Member

No need for this

nevermind. p2p is a good thing here.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

dadkins

MVM

Re: No need for this

said by ninjatutle:

nevermind. p2p is a good thing here.
No, just not as evil as you wish people to believe.

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

1 edit

ninjatutle

Member

Re: No need for this

Why does this little piece of software exist again. What is the news headline under this one?

No reply necessary.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

dadkins

MVM

Re: No need for this

said by ninjatutle:

Why does this little piece of software exist again. What is the news headline under this one?

No reply necessary.
Because, if *I* decide to do my part and share the LEGAL files I download, and the ISP is so anal that I cannot and that makes it harder and slower for me to get my LEGAL items, it's bullshit!

Nothing illegal, no matter what you think or say ninjatutle.
Get over yourself!

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

ninjatutle

Member

Re: No need for this

Nothing to get all worked up about man. Relax, it's almost the weekend. All that anger, tisk tisk.

dadkins
Can you do Blu?
MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA

1 recommendation

dadkins

MVM

Re: No need for this

No anger, just facts.

LOL!
Have a Great Weekend NT!
jc10098
join:2002-04-10

1 recommendation

jc10098 to dadkins

Member

to dadkins
SHHHH......You got to know if half of everyone or even 2/3rds of everyone use something for it's unintended purpose, it is there by assumed the other 1/3rd do too. Don't you know the law of statistics. If people take something, and abuse it, everyone is then guilty. Isn't that how America works today? We're a nation of blanket assumptions and hysteria.

LowInfoVoter
Vote early, vote often, vote democrat.
join:2007-11-19
USA

LowInfoVoter

Member

Re: No need for this

47 percent of all statistics are made up

karlmarx
join:2006-09-18
Moscow, ID

karlmarx to ninjatutle

Member

to ninjatutle
Yes, but I use it for illegal stuff. Please tell me why that bothers you? I mean, I'm using what I paid for. If you chose not to use the bandwidth, more power to you (less power actually). Why does what your neighbor do bother you? Do you get pissed if the neighbors have more sex than you? If not, why does the neighbor downloading something seem to bother you?

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

ninjatutle

Member

Re: No need for this

Hey look at me, I'm a thief

And I love shouting at the top of my lungs that I am one

Jim Kirk
Premium Member
join:2005-12-09
49985

Jim Kirk

Premium Member

Re: No need for this

said by ninjatutle:

Hey look at me, I'm a thief

And I love shouting at the top of my lungs that I am one
I always knew you were.

"Thou doest protest too much"
jc10098
join:2002-04-10

jc10098 to karlmarx

Member

to karlmarx
Karl,

Well nice admitting to that. However, if you get caught, you have no one to blame but yourself, either. On that note, the ISPS and Teclos should not be acting as police, You are free to do as you want. The same as you will be free to suffer the consequences if you get in trouble, too. You assume the risk and the ISPS and TELCOS should not be acting as big brother to prevent you from doing as you wish. It's like running across the street and jay walking. It's illegal, but people do it. Should cops be stationed at every street to be sure it doesn't happen. We know people get hit by cars. If a cop was at every intersection at every moment, such accidents wouldn't occur. Yet, they are not. They assume adults can make their own choices. If you don't due from it, then you pay the price both legally and otherwise for your choice.

Jovi
Premium Member
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA

Jovi

Premium Member

Is the file corrupted for anyone else?

I am using Winrar to open this and some files are missing or corrupted.

mark470
eh?
Premium Member
join:2002-01-09
Hooksett, NH

1 recommendation

mark470

Premium Member

all your internets are belong to us

free the web, free the web

Mannus
Premium Member
join:2005-10-25
Fort Wayne, IN

Mannus

Premium Member

.

We're not gonna protest
We're not gonna protest
We're not gonna protest
We're not gonna protest

Gutter is a tool!

Gutter is a tool!
PCcertified
join:2008-08-04
canada

PCcertified

Member

I think you're a little off topic here.

The point of this tool is to help you determine if your ISP is tampering with your traffic. If my ISP starts shaping my traffic like my last ISP did, I want to know about it.

I don't think it's relevant what you do with your bandwidth, you paid for it. But I do think it's a BIG deal when your ISP starts filtering or shaping your bandwidth due to your activities. After all YOU are PAYING for this service, you should get what you paid for!

Whats the point in paying for a 5 meg service if your ISP throttles down to one tenth of your speed every time you use the full 5 megs for more than an hour.

When you talk to your ISP regarding this issue the usual reply is, it's your computer, everything is working fine here. But the fact is that bandwidth throttling like other tactics have become a common practice among the BIG ISP's and it's time they were held accountable for this activity.

This new tool, just allows us to gather the PROOF needed to hold them accountable.

Thats my 2 sense, isn't the internet great!