ADVOCATES of net neutrality, the idea that all internet traffic should get equal priority, last week cheered a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission against US internet service provider Comcast. Last year the ISP was found to be monitoring its users鈥� activity and 鈥渢hrottling鈥� the transmission of video and other files sent by bandwidth-hungry peer-to-peer applications. The FCC now says this is contrary to the 鈥渧ibrant and open nature of the internet鈥�.
Internet users can now check for themselves whether their ISP is throttling or otherwise interfering with their traffic. A free program called Switzerland, released last week by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, monitors the data packets exchanged with a provider and alerts the user if anyone is messing with them.
