The Internet Under Attack.

I've been wanting to write this article for along time, about the infamous "Net Neutrality." I feel that people reading this will be divided about 80/20 on this issue. 80% are going, "Net what?" The other 20% know how bad it could suck. I'll break it down as simple as I can for you folks: With Halo.

(Via: This Spartan Life)

Right now as the 'net stands everyone is equal. That is this site ADIDAT gets the same amount of bandwidth, service, support, and treatment as say Google or Amazon or CNN, etc... That is to there is network neutrality, every site on the internet has a fair share of the internet. They all pay for their domain (address) and no matter what computer or ISP (internet service provider) that you view that site from, it comes across the same; at the same speed and quality. (depending on the internet connection of course!)

Two Tier'd Internet

Now what the ISP's (Charter, Verizon, Comcast) want is websites to pay them (again!) for premium space on the net. So this would, in affect, divide the internet into Two Tiers. A Premium Tier, and the Ghetto Tier. The premium tier would see preferential treatment in regards to bandwidth speeds along with service and support. The ghetto tier would be well, treated like the ghetto... Abandoned, with slow speeds and lackluster service and support. Some might say, "Big deal, that's how the world works. Money talks bullshit walks."

• But How Would This Really Effect You As A Consumer?

First of all look at these companies that started out small and thanks to net neutrality were able to thrive, Google, Amazon, eBay, Flickr, Myspace, Digg, Wikipedia, You Tube, Netflix, etc.. Heard of any of these sites??? You might not have, had a two tier'd net been in place already.

• Now How Would This Effect Your Daily Life?
  

Let's start small, email. Most people use or at least have a(n) Gmail, Yahoo!, MSN/Hotmail email account. So let's say the Two Tier Internet is in effect, you've got a Yahoo! email account. Google (Gmail) and Microsoft (MSN/Hotmail) pay to be in the Premium Tier, Yahoo! Alas, does not. So when you access your email from the same computer and the same internet connection as someone who has Gmail, it would take you TWICE as long to login and check your mail as someone else (me!) using Gmail. All because Yahoo! didn't pay the ransom "Premium" to be in the higher Tier. How many customers do you think Yahoo! would be able to keep? And new ones, forget about it.

• How Will This Effect Your Buisness?
  

So now you want to run your own web biz, great! Here's what you need to do:

1. Buy a computer.
2. Pay your ISP for internet access.
   
3. Buy a domain.
4. If you can't, pay someone to build your site.
5. Pay your ISP for "Premium Tier" access.

Wait, about #5 I thought #2 said, "Pay your ISP..." Oh, it did. They both do... So I get to pay them twice? Makes sense to me...

Don't let these big ISP's get away with a Two Tier'd Internet. Help get laws passed to save Net Neutrality. Send a message to your Congressmen to let them know we need to save the net.

Send Message.

Savetheinternet.com