

Ask HN: Is there a "magic bullet" to test claims of Verizon/Comcast throttling? - astrobiased

There&#x27;s been a lot of discussion about Verizon and Comcast throttling services like Netflix and Youtube. When someone claims that they found evidence, there are often comments saying that the method is flawed. If all these claims are not conclusive, what would be the &quot;magic bullet&quot; test? Could we do it by collectively sharing certain network results? Would testing the bit rate with VPN on&#x2F;off help test these claims?
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ScottWhigham
At one point, Google used to have a page speed test - it was here:

[http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/](http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/)

Now, that "page" is just a commercial/education as far as I can tell. The
"Your results" part, for me at least, is grayed out and says "Your results are
not available" when I mouse over.

Interestingly enough, they have a bunch of gobbledegook at the bottom of this
page about being a "HD Verified ISP" -

[http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/#methodology](http://www.google.com/get/videoqualityreport/#methodology)

No actual data though, at least I don't see it. It claims to have "ratings"
but I see nothing but text.

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wmf
Other than some kind of leak there's essentially no way to have proof. But
bandwidth tests from many customers _across many AS paths_ could expose where
the problems lie, and if they all lie in one particular place then we could
break out the pitchforks.

Here's an example of uncovering the "everybody pays Comcast but Comcast pays
no one" business model: [http://www.internap.com/2010/12/02/peering-disputes-
comcast-...](http://www.internap.com/2010/12/02/peering-disputes-comcast-
level-3-and-you/) It appears that Verizon has now adopted the same tactic of
creating selective congestion through deliberate non-upgrading.

