So, I’m sitting in a training session on Imagestream routers. Really great little machines. Most of the people in here run ISPs, particularly WISPs. Right now, the instructor is going over how to use iptables to rate limit various types of traffic, and talking about how you can use it to “monetize” different traffic types by selling specific packages which are not rate limited on those types. His example was the “bittorrent package”.
I can see why ISPs need to be able to control the traffic in their networks to a certain degree, but this is exactly why we need net neutrality laws. These guys are practically foaming at the mouth at the idea of being able to charge people more money in order to effectively use particular resources online. Scary stuff. The only restriction put on my line should be the amount of bandwidth I am paying for. As far as I’m concerned it’s the ISP’s responsibility to make sure they aren’t so over subscribed that they kill themselves.
