Google, universities offer tool to detect Net filtering, blocking

From CNET News.com: Is your Internet provider interfering with your network traffic, and perhaps even running afoul of Net neutrality principles? Google and some like-minded folks believe they've come up with what amounts to an early warning system.

The idea behind the so-called Measurement Lab, or M-Lab, is that just about anyone interested in Internet regulation--including consumers, regulators, and content providers--could use more details about their network's performance. Google, the Democratic Party-affiliated New America Foundation, and the PlanetLab Consortium (a university-business consortium devoted to next-generation networks) announced M-Lab on Wednesday.

The launch's timing is probably no coincidence: M-Lab may become especially relevant if the Net neutrality wars between Google and broadband providers in Washington heat up again. If Democratic legislators get their way, the so-called stimulus package expected to become law will require federal regulators to define and enforce "open access" rules for certain broadband and wireless networks. The 2007 discovery that Comcast was throttling BitTorrent traffic showed that it can be difficult to determine when network providers are interfering.

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