Does your ISP (Internet Service Provider) have you in a choke hold?

Some of us have heard rumors about certain ISPs throttling down bandwidth and download speed, especially when it comes to downloading music, movies, and other media. There is some truth in these rumors, depending on who your ISP is, what you download, etc; so we'll talk about how to tell if this is happening and what to do about it.

Please note, however, that we do not condone or endorse illegal downloading of copy-righted material.

The first thing to do is check the speed of your internet connection to make sure that's not the problem, as ISPs usually have several different speeds available with the higher speeds being more expensive. A quick and easy way to do this is to go to www.speedtest.net and click on "begin test" at the top of the page. Usually, your upload speed will be slower than your download speed, which is normal (ISPs do this on purpose as most of download much more than we upload data). If your speed is lower than 1-2 Mbps (mega bits per second), this may be part of the problem. Consider upgrading to the next speed level (or tier) that your ISP offers.

If your speed is decent, get on the phone, call your ISP, and just ask them. Sometimes they'll be straight and honest and tell you if they're blocking or throttling down your download speed. Sometimes, however, you may not receive a straight answer. In this case, you can read their terms of service agreement (get ready to set aside some time and bore yourself to death as you read the 10 page dissertation. These types of agreements for software, credit cards, etc should be required by law to be in plain English and kept to a certain length, but that's another topic).

If you can't stand the pain of reading legal mumbo-jumbo for 3 hours, can't find the agreement, or the agreement doesn't mention anything relevant there are other steps you can take.

An online tool called Glasnost can help determine if your ISP is meddling with your bit torrent traffic, and it can be useful to perform other tests and benchmarks. Go to http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency to check.

If the results seem to point toward ISP interference, you can fight back. Many bit torrent programs have settings that will allow you to encrypt traffic.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough room in this article to explain how to do this in every program, but if you can't figure it out by playing with the program settings, you can go to your favorite search engine and type something like "encrypt bit torrent traffic in MY PROGRAM" where MY PROGRAM is whatever one you use. Many of these programs also have help files or forums online where you can get help. One thing to note is that while this makes it more difficult for ISP interference, it isn't 100% perfect.

Another method of evasion is to change the port number that bit torrent uses. Although this isn't something a novice will know how do by default, it isn't that hard either. Bit torrent usually uses port 6881. This can be changed though, but may also require changing settings in your router if you use one. Go to portforward.com for help on tweaking these types of settings on your router. For help with the tweaking the program you use, use methods similar to ones previously described.

Last but not least, you can try a service such as Relakks or SecureIX (search for them) which promise to prevent your ISP from interfering with bit torrent downloads for a small monthly fee.

If all else fails, call your ISP and tell them you will switch if they don't stop.

You pay for your internet connection and have a right to use it as you see fit as long as it doesn't violate the law or rights of others; your ISP is not the police, nor are they law makers and should not have a right to tell you what you can and can't download or upload.

Please help support net neutrality. Websites such as http://www.savetheinternet.com/ can give you more information on what net neutrality is all about and your rights as an internet user in a free country.