EFF introduces Switzerland...the program
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released an open-source, cross-platform program designed to track your packets and determine if your ISP is throttling your connection to torrents, VoIP, and other legal, high-bandwidth consuming communications. Called "Switzerland" and licensed under the GPL, it's very much in an alpha state and is only a command-line tool at the moment. Also, you're going to have to compile it yourself--that's not the most challenging task, but this isn't a simple self-extracting app.
According to the EFF, Switzerland works by spotting IP packets that have been forged or modified between clients, informing you of the change, and providing you copies of the modified packets. "The software uses a semi-P2P, server-and-many-clients architecture. Whenever the clients send packets to each other, the server will attempt to determine if any of them were dropped, forged, or modified," says the Switzerland Web site.
As far as usage goes, the EFF says that Switzerland is compatible with NAT firewalls, although some NAT firewalls may have to be disabled to test the ISP in front of it, because of the modifications that some firewalls make to packets.
I do wonder at the logic of the name, though. Referencing the "neutral" country is cute, but what's going to happen when somebody tries to find the program through a search engine? Googling "Switzerland" returns 234 million results, give or take.
Anyway, Switzerland is not the first packet-testing program around. What is special about it, though, is that unlike, for example, the plug-in for the Vuze/Azureus torrent client, Switzerland isn't tied to any host program. The open-source license, combined with the backing of a visible group like the EFF and the building awareness in both politicians and the general public of what Net Neutrality is about, could have serious ramifications for combating false promises of Net Neutrality from ISPs like Comcast.
Seth peers into the deep, dark corners of software so that you don't have to. He has yet to suffer a single nightmare about OS/2. You can follow him on Twitter. 
Just search for "EFF Switzerland"
This is all well and good for those who know how to compile source code. Or have at least a basic understanding. Why so much hype for something that is very much in an alpha state and is only a command-line tool at the moment.
Way too much hype "Seth" unless you're going to put a tutorial together to show users, how to compile source code and what compiler they need etc.... Then untill this becomes an app with GUI not many people are going to download and if they do download they probably think it's going to be a GUI app. As when I got my C|Net Digital Dispatch there was the following from Tom Merritt:
Are you being throttled?
Are you worried that your ISP might be monkeying with your connection? Have you recently purchased BitTorrent movies or tried to download Ubuntu Linux and noticed a suspicious slowdown? Well, the EFF has a tool that can help you, as well as help innocent ISPs prove they're not messing with you. It's called Switzerland, and it can test your connection to see if any unusual traffic manipulation is going on. Learn all about it and get the link in today's Daily Download. Check for bandwidth throttling
Tom & Seth this is just a bit misleading you need to be more UPFRONT about apps and not just the quick sell. Even though it is GPL'd
This is all well and good for those who know how to compile source code. Or have at least a basic understanding. Why so much hype for something that is very much in an alpha state and is only a command-line tool at the moment.
Way too much hype "Seth" unless you're going to put a tutorial together to show users, how to compile source code and what compiler they need etc.... Then untill this becomes an app with GUI not many people are going to download and if they do download they probably think it's going to be a GUI app. As when I got my C|Net Digital Dispatch there was the following from Tom Merritt:
Are you being throttled?
Are you worried that your ISP might be monkeying with your connection? Have you recently purchased BitTorrent movies or tried to download Ubuntu Linux and noticed a suspicious slowdown? Well, the EFF has a tool that can help you, as well as help innocent ISPs prove they're not messing with you. It's called Switzerland, and it can test your connection to see if any unusual traffic manipulation is going on. Learn all about it and get the link in today's Daily Download. Check for bandwidth throttling
Tom & Seth this is just a bit misleading you need to be more UPFRONT about apps and not just the quick sell. Even though it is GPL'd
I have an XP environment and I have installed Python, Winpcap & NTP. I tried to install the Python win32 extensions and this gave me an error stating that the application has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect and states that reinstalling it may fix the problem. Well, it doesn't!
What is the point in getting us to waste hours of our time for an installation that only a true guru can understand let alone fix.
Is there an easier way to install this application?
- by miwi98 August 8, 2008 7:42 AM PDT
- Ditto!
- Like this Reply to this comment
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