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Open Source Switzerland Network Testing Tool Catches ISP Throttlers In the Act
Posted by Jack Loftus at 10:00 AM on August 4, 2008
As part of an effort to thwart future ISP infractions, a la Comcast, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released Switzerland, an open source software tool for "testing the integrity of data communications over networks, ISPs and firewalls." If you've been following Comcast for any amount of time over the past year or so, you know exactly what that means.
It's available for download now, but be warned: this is an alpha release command line tool (read: newbies need not apply just yet). Serious code monkeys are encouraged to download and kick the tires a bit to see if it does as advertised. Mainly, that means detection of packet modifications or injections as they travel over IP networks. Past culprits in this category include anti-P2P tools from Sandvine (Comcast vs. BitTorrent), AudibleMagic, advertising injection systems like FairEagle, and censorship programs like those used in China.
Here's a little bit more on Switzerland from the EFF:
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 [...] Switzerland is a much more sophisticated successor to the pcapdiff software that we released last year. It automates many of the things that had to be done by hand with the earlier code.
One advantage this architecture has over other network testing tools is that it can spot arbitrary kinds of packet modifications in any protocol -- it doesn't assume that the interference comes in the form of TCP reset packets or web page modifications, and it isn't limited to BitTorrent or any other specific application.
[EFF]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
smokeonit
Posted 12:54 PM 4/8/08
linux but no osX installer??? WTF???
smokeonit
DeadWriter
Posted 10:16 AM 4/8/08
It's written in Python and is cross platform. It's an alpha, so it isn't going to install it's self in one click or be bug free.
It's time I renew my EFF membership.
DeadWriter
Mr.DuckSauce
Posted 10:07 AM 4/8/08
great, fighting the fight in better ways.
Mr.DuckSauce
Fountainhead
Posted 1:59 PM 4/8/08
The silence on this topic is deafening. Long Live Usenet!
Fountainhead
bjacobel
Posted 1:45 PM 4/8/08
Do we really need leet hax to tell if Comcast/all the other shady ISP's are packet-shaping? If we just called and asked them, they'd probably tell us that they were. And then they would blow a raspberry and hang up.
bjacobel
MastaFalse
Posted 2:19 PM 4/8/08
@smokeonit: quit crying, beotch.
MastaFalse
skiterr
Posted 3:21 PM 4/8/08
@smokeonit: maybe it's time you get a real OS
skiterr
SinAmos
Posted 3:57 PM 4/8/08
@smokeonit: I'm going to have to agree with smokeonit even though I'm not a white finish basher myself. Easy buttons are for, well, for the lack of a better word, simpletons.
SinAmos
twreckx
Posted 9:28 PM 4/8/08
@bjacobel: Your faith in corporate world astounds me. As far as I can remember, Comcast sure as hell denied any such traffic-shaping shenanigans were going on until they were caught red-handed. And then tried some bullsh*t mis-speak gobbledy gook. Open and honest not really a phrase in the corporate handbook on how to please customers...
twreckx
HawkSkater0
Posted 10:23 PM 4/8/08
damn you switzerland, you take the best thing that ever happened to a computer (open source) and you use it for evil. Shame on you, I think we need to re-write the open source rules and add: May not use to help comcast/ any other form of evil.
HawkSkater0
Barry99705
Posted 10:12 PM 4/8/08
@smokeonit: It works just fine in OSX. It's still command line though, didn't you read that "newbies need not apply just yet" part.
Barry99705
luciusad2004
Posted 10:32 PM 4/8/08
@HawkSkater0: wtf are you talking about dude? The software detects the evils brought upon yourself by those such as comcast.
luciusad2004
Hoaxe
Posted 11:56 PM 4/8/08
@smokeonit: yeah man, WTF are you doing on OSX anyways?
Hoaxe
VideoVampire
Posted 1:15 AM 5/8/08
Catch those dog-theiving bastards in the act and shove it up their a$$es.
VideoVampire
GadgetPlay
Posted 4:43 AM 5/8/08
Now that's the kind of quality comment we expect of HawkSkater0 !
GadgetPlay
Rususeruru
Posted 12:44 PM 5/8/08
/seemingly unrelated
Too bad EFF didn't snag the slogan "Your Friend In The Digital Age."
before Cox did.
/related
This is great news.
Rususeruru
iCanhasLs2plz
Posted 1:04 PM 5/8/08
@HawkSkater0:
???
iCanhasLs2plz