ISP-s versus Backbone Providers - "Observations of an Internet Middleman" - Net Neutrality

[NaDre 154]

I am not an expert on these issues, but I know that there a couple of things that make comparisons quite difficult.

 

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2) "Peering" arrangements between IPS-s and back bone exchanges can have a huge impact. Struggles over revenue sharing between businesses (particularly in the U.S. I believe) results in deliberate throttling. When you go through a VPN, the series of peer to peer exchanges you go through may change dramatically. And can impact bandwidth dramatically. So changing servers can make a difference. So can changing ISP-s. But predicting ahead of time what might help, unless you want to become an expert on internet peering issues, is impractical I think.

 

UPDATE:

 

What I know about these peering issues comes from the struggles my seed box providers has had providing fast connections to there users. On of the things they often ask for is a tracert/traceroute traces from the the users system to theirs, but also from their system back to the user's system.

 

The traceroute back to the user's system can be done from a shell account on the server. Something VPN users do not have.

 

These logs can be used by those who really want to dig into it to figure out what peer to peer exchanges are used going each way.

 

Given that there are so many technically oriented/curious people using AirVPN, I wonder if AirVPN would may want to add a feature to allow a user to obtain a traceroute back to their system from the VPN server?

 

I have not seen much discussion here about the struggles going on between ISP-s (especially in the U.S.) and backbone providers. And the effect it is having on customers. Including (I think) AirVPN users. So I thought I would post a link to a recent blog post on the Level 3 web site:

 

http://blog.level3.com/global-connectivity/observations-internet-middleman/

 

A note worthy bit:

 

"That leaves the remaining six peers with congestion on almost all of the interconnect ports between us. Congestion that is permanent, has been in place for well over a year and where our peer refuses to augment capacity. They are deliberately harming the service they deliver to their paying customers. They are not allowing us to fulfill the requests their customers make for content.

 

Five of those congested peers are in the United States and one is in Europe. There are none in any other part of the world. All six are large Broadband consumer networks with a dominant or exclusive market share in their local market. In countries or markets where consumers have multiple Broadband choices (like the UK) there are no congested peers."

 

While Level 3 and other backbone providers (e.g. Cogent) are refusing to give in, some service providers (e.g. Netflix) have caved in and made private agreements with ISP-s to let their traffic through the blockade:

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/halsinger/2014/03/30/connections-between-communications-networks-should-the-fcc-breathe-life-into-internet-middlemen/

 

I know that people here are worried about the effect surveillance can have on the internet, but I think this should also very much be on people's minds.

 

UPDATE:

 

I changed the topic name to include "Net Neutrality", because it may not have been obvious that this falls into that general topic. See also this earlier post here by anonym:

 

/topic/11519-united-states-fcc-now-accepting-public-comments-on-net-neutrality/

 

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I just want to make sure Air's United States customers know, the FCC is now accepting public comments on its proposed Net Neutrality (they refer to it as Open Internet) regulations. In their current state, they would enable US broadband companies to charge customers more for faster access to some sites sites, while providing access to other sites (whose operators pay the US telecoms fees) at a higher speed with no additional cost.

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If you have any additional info on this issue, feel free to post links.

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Hopefully my post will help people understand that Net Neutrality is not just about lofty ideals. It can have a very real effect on the quality of your internet experience, even if you are not an idealist.

[anonym 22]

NaDre,

 

Thanks for the info - I didn't know about all this. I also appreciate the links you provided as well as the link to my post.

 

Best regards,

 

anonym