30 May 2014

Understanding Net Neutrality

It seems like normal people don’t understand what this whole “Net Neutrality” thing is.  And why it is SO IMPORTANT.

I’m planning on making a little drawing of this, or something, but for now, the analogy will have to work.  I’ll try to keep it simple.

So think of the Internet like the road system.  The speed limits are sort of like your ISP, limiting your speed based on what package you bought.   Your car is, basically, you… or your computer.  Getting stuff from one place to another is like driving somewhere to get a piece of paper, just like what you did to view this website.

So you can drive as fast as the speed limit allows.  If somebody is slowing you down in one lane, you just pass them in the other lane.  That’s the way the road system works.  Pretty straightforward.  This is Net Neutrality.

But what happens if we lose that neutrality?

Let’s change it up just a bit.

Before getting on to the Interstate, you have to choose what you’re doing, where you’re going.  “Well, I’m going to Tricia’s Bakery.”

So you start driving.  Plug in those GPS coordinates, and you take off… and suddenly your car slows down to 25.  WTF?

It seems Tricia’s Bakery didn’t pay for fast access.  Let her know that she can pay more, and people can get there at full speed.

“But that’s stupid.  The big companies like Verizon or Comcast or whoever are saying you pay to go FASTER, not SLOWER.”

Oh, those sneaky bastards.  See, you were already going as fast as you could before.  They can’t make your ’97 Junker LT go faster… so they slow everybody else down.

If you were going to, say, Comcast Bakery, you could go faster because they paid to get full speed.

OH SNAP.

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Posted May 30, 2014 by Slaughter in category "Uncategorized