Google's bandwidth toolbox

As Internet service providers experiment with ways to control bandwidth consumption and manage congestion on their networks, they'll have Google — and Google hopes thousands of individual users — watching them.

The search giant launched a new Web site, dubbed Measurement Lab, which features a variety of mostly open source tools that customers can use to find out information about their broadband connections, including measuring their connection speed, running diagnostics and discerning if an ISP is throttling particular applications. To support the effort, Google is providing the site with 36 servers in 12 locations in the U.S. and Europe.

Available at www.measurementlab.net, these tools have the potential to deliver a surprisingly complete view of broadband network traffic. The problem: It's not illegal — nor arguably a bad business practice — for an ISP to manage its network. While the FCC, particularly in its ongoing battle with Comcast, has frowned on ISPs targeting specific protocols such as BitTorrent, what users of the Google toolbox are likely to find is already widely known: Most, if not all, ISPs manage traffic on their networks.

How should ISPs respond? One approach, gaining adherents, is to beat Google at its own game by being more open with customers about traffic throttling and releasing tools of their own to enable customers to monitor their consumption and see if and when it is being managed.

WHAT'S IN THE M-LAB TOOLBOX?

NETWORK DIAGNOSTIC TOOL

Tests connection speed and delivers a diagnosis of problems limiting speed.

GLASNOST

Tests whether BitTorrent is being blocked or throttled.

NETWORK PATH AND APPLICATION DIAGNOSIS

Diagnoses common problems that affect last-mile broadband networks.

DIFFPROBE

Determines whether an ISP is giving some traffic a lower priority than other traffic.

NANO

Determines whether an ISP is degrading the performance of a certain subset of users, applications or destinations.