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- Is the Free Bandwidth Campaign's testing program legal?
Is the Free Bandwidth Campaign's testing program legal?
- By Free Bandwidth Campaign
- Published 05/30/2007
- Free Bandwidth Day - 30 June 2007
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Free Bandwidth Campaign
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The short answer is that it is no way illegal. Here is why.
Is it a virus, Trojan or malicious software application?
No, it is not malicious. Users download and install the small program onto their computers. After the program has finished on 30 June 2007, it uninstalls leaving no footprint. The program and its source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2, June 1991 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) and the self installing program and the source code will be available for download on the www.fbc.org.za web site.
Isn’t it a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack?
It is not a DDoS attack. No particular service, website or web server is being targeted and the program deliberately downloads from a very broad range of local South African networks and servers and only for a short period of time. The program stops after 5 minutes of testing.
Isn't the program going to be disruptive?
The testing program is designed not to be disruptive of anyone. We have chosen Saturday, 30 June 2007 and not a weekday so that the users who install the program will not interfere with their own business communications. The aim of the program is to do a simple and small network test to gather information about the local South African network to show that there is no technical reason for local bandwidth not to be free as the law says it should.
What about my privacy? What information will be gathered by the testing program?
We take privacy very seriously. None of the data collected will be able to identify you or your computer. The following information will be collected by the program and send to a central server where the data will be aggregated and then published on the www.fbc.org.za web site.
• The time started.
• A `trace route’ from your computer to the server that the program will download from. The `trace route’ will not include your computer’s IP address.
• The file that was downloaded and how much traffic (downloads and uploads) were consumed.
• The time the program ended.
What about my cap? Won’t the program use a lot of my precious bandwidth?
We choose the last day of the month to do the test for 2 reasons.
1. In most cases your cap will reset at midnight on the last day of the month and so you will be no worse off.
2. It is normally the busiest day of the month with regards to ADSL traffic and thus a good day to collect statistics about the ADSL network.
Here is the maximum bandwidth usage you can expect if you able to do the test at full speed.
Is it a virus, Trojan or malicious software application?
No, it is not malicious. Users download and install the small program onto their computers. After the program has finished on 30 June 2007, it uninstalls leaving no footprint. The program and its source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 2, June 1991 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) and the self installing program and the source code will be available for download on the www.fbc.org.za web site.
Isn’t it a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack?
It is not a DDoS attack. No particular service, website or web server is being targeted and the program deliberately downloads from a very broad range of local South African networks and servers and only for a short period of time. The program stops after 5 minutes of testing.
Isn't the program going to be disruptive?
The testing program is designed not to be disruptive of anyone. We have chosen Saturday, 30 June 2007 and not a weekday so that the users who install the program will not interfere with their own business communications. The aim of the program is to do a simple and small network test to gather information about the local South African network to show that there is no technical reason for local bandwidth not to be free as the law says it should.
What about my privacy? What information will be gathered by the testing program?
We take privacy very seriously. None of the data collected will be able to identify you or your computer. The following information will be collected by the program and send to a central server where the data will be aggregated and then published on the www.fbc.org.za web site.
• The time started.
• A `trace route’ from your computer to the server that the program will download from. The `trace route’ will not include your computer’s IP address.
• The file that was downloaded and how much traffic (downloads and uploads) were consumed.
• The time the program ended.
What about my cap? Won’t the program use a lot of my precious bandwidth?
We choose the last day of the month to do the test for 2 reasons.
1. In most cases your cap will reset at midnight on the last day of the month and so you will be no worse off.
2. It is normally the busiest day of the month with regards to ADSL traffic and thus a good day to collect statistics about the ADSL network.
Here is the maximum bandwidth usage you can expect if you able to do the test at full speed.
| Line Speed | 384 kbps | 512 kbps | 1024 kbps | 4096 kbps | ||||
| Max Download | 14.4 MB | 19.2 MB | 38.4 MB | 153.6 MB | ||||
| % of 3GB cap | 0.47% | 0.63% | 1.25% | 5.00% |
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by mkv)
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Excellent !
Comment #2 (Posted by zonkie)
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Great idea!
The only problem is that many perhaps even most of ADSL users including myself will already be capped on the last day of the month. The test will therefore not be representative of possible ADSL user's bandwith utilisation
Comment #3 (Posted by Johan)
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^ What he said
I'll be capped by the 20th already. :(
Comment #4 (Posted by muahahaha)
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I ***** telkom
EDITED
Comment #5 (Posted by Selene)
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Same here, I have three accounts and I get the last one capped by the 20-25th, depending on how well I can manage it. VOIP rocks, just not when you're living in SA.
Comment #6 (Posted by Morné)
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Great. Now where do we get this utility ... I might have a few thousand users that want to test it on the 30th.
Comment #7 (Posted by Mike)
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This is a ridiculous idea. I cannot see HOW this helps towards making bandwidth free AT ALL!!?!?! EXCEPT, all it does is make BANDWIDTH more EXPENSIVE!
EDITOR'S NOTE: You are entitled to you opinion, but the campaign has clear goals and a definite roadmap to achieve it. Local ADSL bandwidth must be free. It is the law. Telkom is breaking the law. How can free be more expensive?
Comment #8 (Posted by an unknown user)
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153.6 MB ??? 2 problems:
1) No one will have any bandwidth left by the end of the month.
2) The size is TOO big for doint this at the beggining of the month (when everyone has bandwidth).
Why not use 14-20mb at the beginning of the month?
EDITOR'S NOTE: The test is scheduled for Saturday, 30 June 2007 at midday. Later that day at midnight most ADSL users' will reset. If you are capped then you can't do the test. We will have other ways that you could protest against. More later.
Comment #9 (Posted by gareth)
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Yeah where can we get the program? And Mike you are an idiot, most people will be happy for free things, but no you wanna pay more. Shmuck<br>
NOTE: Test program will be available soon.
Comment #10 (Posted by Robert)
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A suggestion, the information as to how many users have reached their threshold at the end of the month should be made available by in some form by telkom, or you could run a brief online census, for all those who couldn't take part. You could always use this data to extrapolate your data results from the bandwidth test at the end of the month. I think you guys have a fantastic idea and I would love to see someone get the better of the monopoly that is strangling this country.
Comment #11 (Posted by Page)
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Great idea!
Question: Will the testing program be available for other OSes (linux, mac, etc)? EDITOR'S NOTE: A Linux and MacOS X version is on the cards.
Comment #12 (Posted by Nic)
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I love this. finally some time to get telkom back. TELKOM CAN SUCK MY ****, their to dumb to realise the lower they drop their prices the more people will get adsl and then the more users they will get = more money, which they love so much. Hope we can give telkom some of their own infrastructure up their ass.
Comment #13 (Posted by Henry)
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Excellent idea! Free the local bandwidth Telkom!