Google and partners to expose network meddling

http://www.techspot.com:80/news/33387-google-and-partners-to-expose-network-meddling.html

Google and partners to expose network meddling
By Jose Vilches, TechSpot.com
Published: January 28, 2009, 6:18 PM EST

[Alan’s Note:]
I’m a supporter of Net neutrality… which means we should all get equal access to the Internet. I’m very glad to read this about Google and partners working to expose such meddling in our network connections by Internet Service Providers (ISP’s). I think they should also look at incoming port blocking on cellular, satellite, and land-based networks. I’ve had it up to HERE with the BS I hear about reasons why network TCP/IP Ports (UDP and TCP inbound ports) are blocked. I was forced into Business Class Service on DSL just to get one measely port open, Port 25, in order to run a Mail Server. Even though I was already Fixed (Static IP) which removes the excuse that I might spam and the ISP wouldn’t be able to tell that it was me doing it. Well Bellsouth (now AT&T) that’s not true - on a fixed IP you wouldn’t have that problem and thus that excuse. So thanks (NOT!) for the hassle and added COST! The latest was (an unnamed) Cellular ISP telling me it was for security reasons… that all inbound ports are block on 3G Cellular Internet. There are also usually these ugly AUP (acceptable use policies) that prevent you from running any kind of camera or service/server on your connection (anything other than a pencil sharpener is probably not allowed) - which leaves you just to whatever you connect out to that will work. Even if you were able to initiate out - all of the common incoming ports - other than probably the Reply Connections (established, related to outbound connection request) are probably blocking coming in. But nothing can be accepted coming in alone. That’s just plain rediculous. We’re at the point of 3.5G moving forward towards 4G… it’s time for Ronald Reagan to stand up and say “Tear down these walls!!!!”. “Well we’re preventing Spam” - the ISP’s will say. “Ahem… well that’s obviously not working” - Alan Spicer says. We are in the age when people want to provide services, be creative, blogging, social networking, share videos and photos, - people want to Provide Services on their connection. To some extent this is allowed on land-based connections, but it gets “meddled with” as the article tells about. On cellular they’re apparently not letting this stuff at all. And I think they should. We just need more people - or a Federal Agency to tell them that they must. People are already replacing traditional telephone service with cellular service. They will begin to replace traditional land-based Internet service with cellular as well. So the cellular networks should allow the same capabilities as the land-based Internet services do. Or at least it should be an option. If certain users (or class of users) wants to have all ports blocked - they should get it. But if other users (or class of users) does not want these things blocked then they should have that option - to not have ports blocked. To say that is a security feature… well I think it’s more than that. That’s all I’m going to say for now. So off to the article…
[end of Alan’s Note]

As promised several months ago, Google and a group of partners have formed the Measurement Lab platform, an open project of distributed servers meant to help researchers gauge just how well an internet connection is working and conversely help customers determine if their ISP is blocking or throttling particular applications.

As part of the plan, Google will provide M-Lab with 36 servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and Europe to run a set of tools which initially include: a network diagnostic tool, which reports the upload and download speeds and also attempts to determine what problems limited these speeds; a tool to detect whether your ISP is performing application-specific shaping; and network and path application diagnosis (NPAD), which diagnoses some of the common problems affecting the last network mile and end-users’ systems.

Google insisted that the effort was not just another means to push Net neutrality and said it believes that consumers should have the right to clearly understand the exact nature of the connection they’re paying for. To help with that goal, M-Lab says two additional tools should arrive shortly, DiffProbe and Nano. The first will attempt to detect if an ISP is classifying certain kinds of traffic as “low priority” (a technique Comcast began using not long ago), while the latter will attempt to detect if an ISP is degrading the performance of a certain subset of users, apps, or destinations.

—
Alan Spicer Telecom / Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
http://www.marinetelecom.net
http://www.alanspicermarinetelecom.com
communications (at) marinetelecom.net
communications (at) alanspicermarinetelecom.com
a_spicer (at) bellsouth.net
+1 954-683-3426 +1 954-977-5245

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