[ NNSquad ] "Thumbs on the Scale?" -- was Re: tools

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

I would be very interested to see the quantitative effects in play
for such situations.  If anyone can provide hard numbers illustrating
the impact of ISPs purposely favoring speed test sites to boost
numbers, that would be extremely useful.  Obviously, such behavior
would have a number of fascinating ramifications.  Thanks.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator

 - - -

> At 03:07 PM 11/20/2007, Roy J. Tellason wrote:
>  
> >I have been reading this list with some interest looking for specifics in 
> >terms of tools that might be useful in testing some of the things that are 
> >under discussion here.
> >
> >One possibly useful site I saw mentioned on another list is this one:
> >
> >http://speedtest.net/
> 
> This and also http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest are very well known.
> And many cable and DSL providers intentionally unthrottle them, so as
> to put their thumbs on the scale when users "test" their bandwidth.
> 
> While we don't cheat, these sites do not give an accurate measure of 
> the speed of our network because of its unique architecture.
> 
> --Brett
>