Gemini Project LiveCD Tests Your ISP For BitTorrent Blocking

Simplifies the process of finding out whether or not your ISP is actively throttling your BitTorrent upload speeds.

It’s no secret among Comcast customers that their ISP is actively throttling their BitTorrent connections in the name of network bandwidth “management.” The only trouble is that customers of different ISPs may be unaware if the same is happening to them if they’re aren’t savvy enough to use WireShark or other packet sniffer applications.

To prove the existence of file-sharing filters can be difficult, especially if one seeks for evidence on a single computer, but the process gets easier if a test is performed by two remote users exchanging given data packets through a P2P protocol. By comparing what one end of the connection has sent to what the other end has received, one can see if the content has been blocked, delayed or forged by providers.

Project Gemini’s LiveCD simplifies this process for users.

From the developers:

In this project, our aim is to produce evidence with the technique below: we’ve developed two “Live” operating systems designed to connect with one another over the Internet, to start a BitTorrent transfer, and to record the transmission – after which it will generate a report containing the analysis of the traffic.

Every user can get Gemini ISOs and perform the test with a remote friend, if his machine meet the requirements we’re going to indicate.

Requirements and setting:

• In order to be able to perform the test, there must be two different remote users (the test is performable only in couple): one with the version A, the other with the version B. You can download the ISOs for Gemini here:
  Gemini_A.ISO
  Gemini_B.ISO
• Once the ISOs have been downloaded, they need to be burned on a CDROM. (come masterizzare le ISO)
• You need to have an x86-architecture PC (no 64-bit hardware, no ultraSPARC, no Macintosh)
• You need to have a modem/router connected to the network card (no USB, no Wireless), which you must disable NAT and Firewall upon, if previously enabled. The modem/router need to be configured so that the IP got from the provider is routed directly on the network card.
  Please note that not all the modems/routers can be configured this way. Typically, there’s a feature called Half Bridge that can be enabled from the device’s web interface and that sets automatically the machine.

**For more information on how to actually perform the test, visit the Gemini Project Lab’s “LiveCD ISO to detect packet injection and ISPs shaping P2P traffic.“**

[Via P2PBlog]

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