Type of site | Consumer advocacy |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Created by | Justin Beech [1] |
Editor | Karl Bode (2001–2018) [2] [3] [4] |
URL | www |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Users | 1.8 million |
Launched | May 28, 1999 [5] |
Current status | Online |
DSLReports is a North American-oriented broadband information and review site based in New York City. [6] The site's main focus is on internet, phone, cable TV, fiber optics, and wireless services in the United States and Canada, as well as other countries (United Kingdom and Australia). [7] [8]
DSLReports was created by Justin Beech in June 1999. [9] According to Alexa's page ranking system and the WHOIS, dslreports.com's domain URL was registered on May 28, 1999.
In the 2000s, DSLReports was concurrently branded as "BroadbandReports.com," a domain that now redirects to dslreports.com. [10] [11]
Over a four-hour period on April 27, 2011, an automated SQL Injection attack occurred on the DSLReports website. The attack was able to extract 8% of the site's username/password pairs, which amounted to approximately 8,000 of the 9,000 active accounts and 90,000 old or inactive accounts created during the site's 10-year history. [12] [13] Once the intrusion was detected, stopped and the extent of the compromised accounts had been assessed, passwords for those accounts were automatically reset. [14]
DSLReports rates and reviews cable, DSL and fiber optic internet services from providers all over North America. The site also runs support and discussion forums and offers online tools for testing internet connection. [15]
DSLReports allows its users to submit reviews of their Internet service provider (ISP), Web hosting service, digital phone service (VOIP), and more. [16] Users may also read reviews written by others. [17] Many large ISPs have over a thousand reviews on the site. Reviews may be filtered for the user's location and/or connectivity preference.
The site is a source of internet related news and opinion, and occasionally breaks stories about broadband internet service providers, such as Time Warner Cable's 2008 decision to test consumption-based billing with subscribers. [18] That same year, when Charter Communications began sending letters to high-speed internet customers regarding a new website tracking policy, reports of the letters first appeared on DSLReports. [19] DSLReport's editors post Internet-related news and opinion items on the site's front page throughout the day. Common topics of news items and features include wireless technologies, peer-to-peer file sharing, upgrades and new offerings from ISPs, legal issues, regulatory issues, and security issues. [20] However, since July 2, 2018, the site has not published new articles, as its main editor, Karl Bode, was laid off due to funding. [21] [22] However, compilations of links to articles on other sites are published every weekday.
DSLReports is reported to have the most comprehensive package of internet and connection testing tools available. [23]
The DSLReports speed test claims to be the best speed test and the first popular speed test. [24] The speed test uses HTML5.
DSLReports does have a ping and jitter test. [25]
Other tools include stream tests, line monitoring, tweak testing, packet loss testing, and many other tools. [26] [27] [28] Some of these services are provided free of charge, but others require the user to purchase "tool points", which are approximately $1.
DSLReports operates over 200 forums, many of which focus on Internet and computer-related topics. [29] Other forums are dedicated to general conversation, political discussions, do-it-yourself projects or regional discussions. There are over a 1.8 million total registered users on the DSLReports forums. [30] A discussion forum is automatically created for every news and opinion article posted on the front page, which allows members to discuss the article in question. Although membership is free, the forum community allows for anonymous posting so the information or source in [anonymous] posts may be questionable as compared to posts made by actual frequent members of the site. There are also well hidden private invitation and very controversial forums such as the "meatlocker" which can be seen by adding the /forums/meatlocker suffix to he website address. It is said this private area is for nude and pornographic material submitted by the moderators and special guests.
Robb Topolski, a software tester whose findings and subsequent political activities have contributed to the movement for net neutrality has contributed to the site. [31]
DSLReports has been written about or had their reports featured in CNN , USA Today , Forbes , NBC News , The Washington Post , The New York Times and Ars Technica , among others. [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38]
The site has been described by The Washington Post as a "comprehensive reference" for internet services. [39] Discussion topics on the DSLReports frequently generate thousands of comments. [40] The Associated Press reported that over 5,000 messages were posted to forum discussing a potential data cap imposed upon Comcast Corp. customers in 2003. [41]
CNN has rated DSLReports as one of the best free online services. [42]
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned.
Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet service providers (ISPs) delivering connectivity at a wide range of data transfer rates via various networking technologies. Many organizations, including a growing number of municipal entities, also provide cost-free wireless access and landlines.
Rogers Hi-Speed Internet is a broadband Internet service provider in Canada, owned by Rogers Communications. Rogers previously operated under the brand names Rogers@Home, Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet, WAVE, and Road Runner in Newfoundland. It is currently the second largest Internet provider in Canada, after Bell Internet by customer count.
Network neutrality, often net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication.
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 26 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, just behind Comcast, and third-largest pay TV operator behind Comcast and AT&T. Charter is the fifth-largest telephone provider based on number of residential lines.
Bandwidth throttling consists in the intentional limitation of the communication speed of the ingoing (received) data and/or in the limitation of the speed of outgoing (sent) data in a network node or in a network device.
A data cap, often erroneously referred to as a bandwidth cap, is an artificial restriction imposed on the transfer of data over a network. In particular, it refers to policies imposed by an internet service provider in order to limit customers' usage of their services; typically, exceeding a data cap would require the subscriber to pay additional fees based on whether they have exceeded this limit. Implementation of a data cap is sometimes termed a fair access policy, fair usage policy, or usage-based billing by ISPs.
Currently from AT&T is a trade name for several affiliated companies.
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
RCN Corporation, originally Residential Communications Network, founded in 1993 and based in Princeton, New Jersey, was the first American facilities-based ("overbuild") provider of bundled telephone, cable television, and internet service delivered over its own fiber-optic local network as well as dialup and DSL Internet service to consumers in the Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. areas.
Internet in Australia first became available on a permanent basis to universities in Australia in May 1989, via AARNet. Pegasus Networks was Australia's first public Internet provider in June 1989. The first commercial dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) appeared in capital cities soon after, and by the mid-1990s almost the entire country had a range of choices of dial-up ISPs. Today, Internet access is available through a range of technologies, i.e. hybrid fibre coaxial cable, digital subscriber line (DSL), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and satellite Internet. In July 2009, the federal government, in partnership with the industrial sector, began rolling out a nationwide fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and improved fixed wireless and satellite access through the National Broadband Network. Subsequently, the roll out was downgraded to a Multi-Technology Mix on the promise of it being less expensive and with earlier completion. In October 2020, the federal government announced an upgrade by 2023 of NBN fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) services to FTTP for 2 million households, at a cost of A$3.5 billion.
Internet access is widely available in New Zealand, with 94% of New Zealanders having access to the internet as of January 2021. It first became accessible to university students in the country in 1989. As of June 2018, there are 1,867,000 broadband connections, of which 1,524,000 are residential and 361,000 are business or government.
The Internet in the United States grew out of the ARPANET, a network sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense during the 1960s. The Internet in the United States in turn provided the foundation for the worldwide Internet of today.
Canada ranks as the 21st in the world for Internet usage with 31.77 million users as of July 2016 (est), making up 89.8% of the population. According to Harvard researchers, Canada has some of the lowest internet standards among OECD countries, as a result of high costs and slow internet speeds.
The internet is an important contributor to Ireland's economy and education. The telecommunications infrastructure in Ireland provides Internet access to businesses and home users in various forms, including fibre, cable, DSL, wireless, Fixed Wireless and mobile. In 2019, 91% of households have access to the Internet in Ireland at home, with 88% of individuals reporting that they had used the internet in the three months prior to interview.
Internet in India began in 1986 and was available only to the educational and research community. General public access to the internet began on 15 August 1995, and as of 2020 there are 718.74 million active internet users that comprise 54.29% of the population.
NebuAd was an American online advertising company based in Redwood City, California, with offices in New York and London and was funded by the investment companies Sierra Ventures and Menlo Ventures. It was one of several companies which originally developed behavioral targeting advertising systems, and sought deals with ISPs to enable them to analyse customer's websurfing habits in order to provide them with more relevant, micro-targeted advertising. Phorm was a similar company operating out of Europe. Adzilla and Project Rialto also appear to be developing similar systems.
MyBroadband is South Africa's largest technology news website which was started in 2003 as a consumer advocacy forum to address broadband problems which existed in the country at the time.
Net bias is the counter-principle to net neutrality, which indicates differentiation or discrimination of price and the quality of content or applications on the Internet by ISPs. Similar terms include data discrimination, digital redlining, and network management.
Internet rush hour is the time period when the majority of Internet users are online at the same time. Typically, in the UK the peak hours are between 7 and 11 pm. During this time frame, users commonly experience slowness while browsing or downloading content. The congestion experienced during the rush hour is similar to transportation rush hour, where demand for resources outweighs capacity.