EFF Releases ‘Switzerland’ Network-Testing Tool

No one likes it when ISPs take it upon themselves to shape how our traffic is used, but up to now, it’s been incredibly difficult to prove that any of these ISPs were doing such a thing. Luckily, the infamous Comcast case was one of the few instances where they couldn’t continue to deny their shady means, and thanks to a new application from the EFF, you yourself can now see whether or not your own ISP filters your traffic.

The tool is called ‘Switzerland’ and currently runs on many different OS’, including Windows, OS X and Linux. Right now, it’s all command-lined-based, so it’s not the most accessible tool in the shed, however with a little determination, you could surely become a master rather fast. I was unable to get it to function on my 64-bit Linux box, and for now, I’m going to assume that being 64-bit is the problem. Maybe your experiences will vary.

How the test functions is that it connects to one of their servers (or another server that’s running the server version of the client), and you can send certain packet-types back and forth. The Switzerland software will notify you if any of the packets have been altered during their travel and even show you the actual filtered result. Essentially, it’s a simple way to see what kind of traffic your ISP is filtering, if any. The tool is still in its alpha stage, but if you are feeling brave and are curious, definitely give it a shot.

Switzerland is designed to detect the modification or injection of packets of data traveling over IP networks, including those introduced by anti-P2P tools from Sandvine (widely believed to be used by Comcast to interfere with BitTorrent uploads) and AudibleMagic, advertising injection systems like FairEagle, censorship systems like the Great Firewall of China, and other systems that we don’t know about yet.