Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put together new net neutrality guidelines, and these new rules mainly benefited consumers. As always, there might be a loophole or two, but the new rules will largely benefit us all. The FCC’s net neutrality guidelines are to be followed by all internet service providers (ISPs), but policing whether ISPs really follow all the rules and don’t degrade end users’ internet connections has been an issue until now.
Take the Internet Health Test to check if ISPs are throttling websites
Fortunately, there’s a new web tool named Internet Health Check that checks whether a internet service provider is blocking or throttling any website. The tool checks for any degradation of the internet connection and will provide you with details.
This web tool is supported by three well-known open internet groups: Demand Progress, Fight for the Future and the Free Press Action Fund. They note: “This test measures whether interconnection points are experiencing problems. It runs speed measurements from your (the test user’s) ISP, across multiple interconnection points, thus detecting degraded performance.”
A number of different processes are launched once you start the test. First, it checks your connection by sending data to different locations throughout the Internet. This helps you to know whether there are choke points in between various connections that are slowing you down. For example, this is what happened when Comcast slowed down Netflix in order to make the firm pay for more bandwidth. The Internet Health Test test is designed to help users check if ISPs are breaking the rules and slowing you down.
To perform the Internet Health Test, just visit the site and click on the green “Start the test” button. This will open a new window where the test will check for signs for degradation. The supporting open internet organizations want s many people as possible to take the test so that everyone can know which ISPs are throttling down connections despite the new rules. So go ahead and take the test, it will take only a minute or two, and then you’ll know whether your provider is really giving you the internet “fast lane” or not
