The FCC has been in talks with a number of large networks and providers to come to an agreement about how net neutrality can be implemented without legislation. Unfortunately it seems the people who are pushing open networks want to put an end to this and have it heard in a public form.
Net Neutrality has as many motivations behind it as there are people trying to push it but for the average user it can mean reduced services so others can play games and we don’t mean Halo.
When the internet was started there was basically one backbone provider and a number of Wans that connected in a cloud. The local networks provided access for their company, school or dialup users and often provided content on servers that was both public and private.
Today many of the backbone providers have started offering end user connections cutting out ISP’s and they have also jumped into colocation of servers to provide content. On the other hand as smaller networks grew they found it useful to supply much of their own backbone.
Peering Agreements at major data connection points in the beginning allowed any traffic and prices were based purely on throughput.
After waves and waves of Hacking in the 90’s and ISPs finding a handful of customers clinging to their POPs / dialup modems for days without a disconnect running servers sending files … basically end users who broke their user agreements… ISPs started to try and provide the best experience at a price that people could afford.
If you wanted a dialup 56k connection you could pay $300 a month for dedicated or $15 a month for POP Access with restrictions.
Well although much of America and the World are still on Dialup half or more depending on your location can get access to High Speed DSL or Better.
Unfortunately as speeds went up so did the problem of data transfer that is outside of the End User Agreements of most ISPs.
If you want a Comcast Business Account and you can get one … not always easy for your home … then you pay Over $100 a month for about the same service as a home user gets for $25 a month. You can get more services for more money and you can even run servers on a Business Account but Home Users are not allowed to run servers.
Comcast very rarely enforces their End User Agreement in the area of Running Servers but if you are a home Business or a family that requires the line at least partly for work you should take heed to what may come next in the Net Neutrality Shake Down.
Where EMail was once a traffic concern that turned into Web Traffic the use of P2P servers by customers is now clogging much of the traffic that runs on Comcast, Verizon, Cox and the rest of the Backbone/ End User Networks.
Lets face it Most P2P traffic is Jacked Software, Movies, Music and other Large files that could never be hosted on a webserver. Not only is the traffic illegal in the eyes of copyright laws using a P2P ap on your home computer can get your account closed.
Yes thats right mom and dad if your kid is downloading Hundreds of DVDs or building his own multimedia datacenter in his bedroom you risk losing your only decent connection to the office when you need to work from home. For some people that may mean needing to move to another town so you can get a different provider to give you broadband allowing you to connect to the office.
So after this little rant explaining only one part of what Net Neutrality means I am taking this time to say if you value being a customer in the future you will need to put an end to these practices if the Government decides to enforce Net Neutrality.
The way providers like Comcast and Verizon Fios will have to attempt to address their loss of control over their network will be by enforcing end user agreements that have been in place for more then a decade now.
With Mail they could turn off ports to stop spammers. With Web or FTP they could close incoming traffic or set up Squid Servers… But with P2P there is no real work around to cache or filter without totally shutting off the offending service…
WELL there is a way and that is traffic shaping…
Traffic shaping is when your provider says we will allow our network to send and receive data based on rules… 80% for Web Traffic 10% for Mail 10% for other… Its the Other where P2P is suppose to exist… Unfortunately P2P has grown to staggering amounts of traffic.
Verizon and Comcast both got sued for trying to Limit P2P.
Now their only option will be to enforce their end user agreement.
Remember a contract that both parties agree to is legal and when you or your Parents signed up for Internet Access you were provided an End User agreement.
If the FCC says No Port Filtering then the Networks will fall back and just start cutting off services just like the Electric Company when you don’t pay your bill.
In all honesty most P2P Trouble makers are not downloading one or two files a week … they get addicted and need to download everything that is available… Oh a 300GB Home Made .. My Little Pony Video with Greek Audio and Chinese Subtitles … SURE GET IT…
People need to get a grip because that screwball downloading that crap to a basement full of drives they paid for with a part time job at walmart are making it impossible for you and me to enjoy the internet…
And believe me there are hundreds of thousands of these fools who don’t care about anything else… and they are called your children or your husband or your wife…
If the FCC is trying to break Peering Agreements and End User contracts … we are going to end up with networks that aren’t worth using.
The internet will become one giant Fail Whale because your neighbor is yanking it to my little pony… SERIOUSLY.. .and this is what Al Frankin and Obama want…
They want everyone in their basement yanking it to my little pony .. stoned out of their minds on weed… not noticing all the crap that is going on…
People need to wake up…
and think about what is happening before you get what you ask for…
Because they win when we give up…
YOU DON’T COME DRUNK
WITH YOUR PANTS DOWN
TO A STREET FIGHT!
BECAUSE MY LITTLE PONY
IS GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS
AND MAKE YOU HIS BITCH IF YOU DO!
WAKE UP!
