Web-based tool to test your broadband connection for Bittorrent throttling
03/29 2008 | 05:26 PM
Posted by: Janko Roettgers
Testing whether your ISP is throttling Bittorrent used to be a rather complicated undertaking. The EFF came up with a guide that, among other things, asks you to "disable TCP and UDP checksum offloading and TCP segmentation offloading." Riiight.
The Live CD previously mentioned on P2P Blog simplified tests quite a bit, but it still involved teaming up with another user of the same ISP. But things are becoming even easier with a new web-based tool developed at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbruecken, Germany.
From its website:
"This test suite creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic. This is a first step towards making traffic manipulation by ISPs more transparent to their customers."
Users just have to run a Java applet on their machine that tries to up- and download data via Bittorrent to and from the Institute's server. The tool tests different ports, so users will know whether their ISP is just blocking a certain port or interfering will all Bittorrent transfers.
P2P Blog tested the tool from residential Comcast line, and it accurately diagnosed a manipulation of the upload traffic. So how is your provider doing? Go ahead, run the test and let us know in the comment section!
The Live CD previously mentioned on P2P Blog simplified tests quite a bit, but it still involved teaming up with another user of the same ISP. But things are becoming even easier with a new web-based tool developed at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbruecken, Germany.
From its website:
"This test suite creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and our server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic. This is a first step towards making traffic manipulation by ISPs more transparent to their customers."
Users just have to run a Java applet on their machine that tries to up- and download data via Bittorrent to and from the Institute's server. The tool tests different ports, so users will know whether their ISP is just blocking a certain port or interfering will all Bittorrent transfers.
P2P Blog tested the tool from residential Comcast line, and it accurately diagnosed a manipulation of the upload traffic. So how is your provider doing? Go ahead, run the test and let us know in the comment section!
KM wrote: