[LINK] Access test tools
stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Wed Apr 1 23:19:39 AEDT 2009
Welcome to Measurement Lab
http://www.measurementlab.net
Use tools running on M-Lab to test your Internet connection:
* Network Diagnostic Tool
Test your connection speed and receive sophisticated diagnosis of
problems limiting speed.
* Glasnost
Test whether BitTorrent is being blocked or throttled.
* Network Path and Application Diagnosis
Diagnose common problems that impact last-mile broadband networks.
* DiffProbe (coming soon)
Determine whether an ISP is giving some traffic a lower priority than
other traffic.
* NANO (coming soon)
Determine whether an ISP is degrading the performance of a certain
subset of users, applications, or destinations.
--
Introducing Measurement Lab
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/introducing-measurement-lab.html
Posted by Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, and Stephen Stuart,
Principal Engineer
When an Internet application doesn't work as expected or your connection
seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your
broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else? ..
Last year we asked a small group of academics about ways to advance
network research and provide users with tools to test their broadband
connections.
Today Google, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the
PlanetLab Consortium, and academic researchers are taking the wraps off
of Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform that researchers can use to
deploy Internet measurement tools.
Researchers are already developing tools that allow users to, among other
things, measure the speed of their connection, run diagnostics, and
attempt to discern if their ISP is blocking or throttling particular
applications.
These tools generate and send some data back-and-forth between the user's
computer and a server elsewhere on the Internet.
Unfortunately, researchers lack widely-distributed servers with ample
connectivity. This poses a barrier to the accuracy and scalability of
these tools. Researchers also have trouble sharing data with one another.
M-Lab aims to address these problems.
Over the course of early 2009, Google will provide researchers with 36
servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and Europe. All data collected via M-
Lab will be made publicly available for other researchers to build on.
M-Lab is intended to be a truly community-based effort, and we welcome
the support of other companies, institutions, researchers, and users that
want to provide servers, tools, or other resources that can help the
platform flourish.
Today, M-Lab is at the beginning of its development. To start, three
tools running on servers near Google's headquarters are available to help
users attempt to diagnose common problems that might impair their
broadband speed, as well as determine whether BitTorrent is being blocked
or throttled by their ISPs. These tools were created by the individual
researchers who helped found M-Lab.
By running these tools, users will get information about their connection
and provide researchers with valuable aggregate data. Like M-Lab itself
these tools are still in development, and they will only support a
limited number of simultaneous users at this initial stage..
No matter your views on net neutrality and ISP network management
practices, everyone can agree that Internet users deserve to be well-
informed about what they're getting when they sign up for broadband, and
good data is the bedrock of sound policy.
Transparency has always been crucial to the success of the Internet, and,
by advancing network research in this area, M-Lab aims to help sustain a
healthy, innovative Internet.
You can learn more at the M-Lab website. If you're a researcher who'd
like to deploy a tool, or a company or institution that is interested in
providing technical resources, we invite you to get involved.
--
Cheers,
Stephen
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