- While most of the "Network
Neutrality" furor has focused on P2P, some more extreme advocates have
also suggested banning:
- Web caching (an
acceleration mechanism that speeds up browsing)
- Network address translation
(a firewall technique that protects systems and conserves expensive
Internet addresses)
- Scanning for outbound SPAM
- Blocking of outbound e-mail
except from mail servers (SPAM prevention)
- Display of informative
messages in the user's Web browser window
- Tiered pricing of Internet
connections (economically infeasible)
- Cutting off connections
that violate user's contract with ISP via TCP reset ("RST") packets, an
effective technique misleadingly branded as "forgery"
- Every one of these demands to
micromanage and regulate ISPs could create security risks, degrade
performance, and/or prevent necessary management
- Only by returning to the
original definition of Network Neutrality (absence of anticompetitive
behavior) can we avoid adverse consequences
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