Do you suspect your Internet service provider isn’t giving you the right amount of bandwidth? You’re not alone. Many IT folks believe — but have trouble verifying — that they’re not getting what they should be from an ISP.
In the past, it’s been tough to get the lowdown on how an ISP manages the various kinds of traffic. And few organizations care more about whether or not you’re getting all the bandwidth you need than the folks at Google.
So they’re gonna help you find out. Google, Inc. has launched what it calls Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open system researchers and consumers can use to access the lab’s Internet performance measurement tools.
These tools will let you measure, among many things, connection speed and also run diagnostics to find out if an ISP is blocking or slowing down certain apps, like Bit Torrent. Google will host the tools on 37 servers in the U.S. and Europe.
Then, when organizations or individuals discover they’re not getting the service they’re paying for, they can raise a ruckus that has data to back it up.
To use the tools, visit M-Lab’s site here.