Switzerland Check Neutrality of the Network

The neutrality of the network is a hot topic in recent times. If the Internet had been designed as a global communications network, in which there are no priorities for data depending on where they come, some access providers have begun? Play dirty? Limiting transfer rates depending on the type of traffic, cutting communications …

The idea of suppliers is mainly able to charge higher? Players?, Such as YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, … and draw traffic performance so far not provided benefits, such as P2P.

For the user, one of the problems is that you detect whether your provider is limiting the connection can be very complicated. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is developing a tool, Switzerland, which will check simply by running a program.

So far, this application is in alpha, designed to be run only by advanced users, who can cope with the command line and they do not amount trastear a bit if it does not work, but his intention is to offer a graphical tool simple to use by anyone.

In Switzerland it is possible to check whether your Internet provider is changing traffic leaving or arriving at our connection, for example using the Bittorrent protocol, or VoIP applications, as a Spanish supplier, trafficking in eMule.

Technically, it works to transmit IP packets between different customers are using the program, along with some servers that are able to determine whether these packages have been modified by the supplier to send or receive.

Thus, it is capable of controlling not only specific applications, such as Bittorrent or eMule, but any type of traffic. It is planned, too, that in the future add other capabilities with which to measure the latency of the connection, different speeds in different types of traffic, statistics ancho de banda, … so also is detected, not only changes in the packets, but also prioritizing these, although they are changed.

Switzerland is developed in Python and is a multiplatform application, although the need to interpret this language to work in our operating system, in addition to requiring permits administrator on the machine where you execute, and working with IP packets at low level.

As we have said, time is only intended for advanced users, but applications of this kind allow us to know what are the providers who perform such tricks with our connection, so you give publicity to the issue is important so that they are pressured to do so.