[Community] il livello "rete": EFF Releases "Switzerland" ISP Testing Tool

[J.C. De Martin]

Difficile immaginare cultura libera
senza una rete altrettanto libera:
nuovo annuncio di un strumento
per controllare dal basso.

juan carlos de martin

August 1st, 2008
EFF Releases "Switzerland" ISP Testing Tool
Empowers Internet Users on Eve of FCC Comcast Action

San Francisco - Hours before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 
is expected to take action against Comcast for violating the FCC's net 
neutrality principles, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is 
releasing "Switzerland," a software tool for customers to test the 
integrity of their Internet communications.

The FCC action, expected later today, is a response to formal complaints 
regarding efforts by Comcast to interfere with its subscribers' use of 
BitTorrent to share files over the Internet. These interference efforts 
were first documented and disclosed in October 2007 by EFF, the 
Associated Press, and a concerned Internet user, Robb Topolski. EFF 
subsequently urged the FCC to declare Comcast's efforts inconsistent 
with the Commission's 2005 "Internet Policy Statement," which sets a 
benchmark for neutral treatment of Internet traffic.

"The sad truth is that the FCC is ill-equipped to detect ISPs 
interfering with your Internet connection," said Fred von Lohmann, EFF 
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney. "It's up to concerned Internet 
users to investigate possible network neutrality violations, and EFF's 
Switzerland software is designed to help with that effort. Comcast isn't 
the first, and certainly won't be the last, ISP to meddle 
surreptitiously with its subscribers' Internet communications for its 
own benefit."

"Until now, there hasn't been a reliable way to tell if somebody -- a 
hacker, an ISP, corporate firewall, or the Great Firewall of China -- is 
modifying your Internet traffic en route," said Peter Eckersley, EFF 
Staff Technologist and designer of Switzerland. "The few tests available 
have been for narrow and specific kinds of interference, or have 
required tremendous amounts of advanced forensic labor. Switzerland is 
designed to make general-purpose ISP testing faster and easier."

Part of EFF's "Test your ISP" project, Switzerland is an open source, 
command-line software tool designed to detect the modification or 
injection of packets of data by ISPs. Switzerland detects changes made 
by software tools believed to be in use by ISPs such as Sandvine and 
AudibleMagic, advertising systems like FairEagle, and various censorship 
systems. Although currently intended for use by technically 
sophisticated Internet users, development plans aim to make the tool 
increasingly easy to use.

For more information and to download the Switzerland software:
http://www.eff.org/testyourisp/switzerland

For more about EFF's "Test Your ISP" Project:
http://www.eff.org/testyourisp

Contacts:

Fred von Lohmann
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
fred a eff.org

Peter Eckersley
Staff Technologist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
pde a eff.org

Related Issues: Test Your ISP

[Permalink]

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/07/31