Can someone please simply explain what Net Neutrality REALLY is?

Question

I'm sick of all this biased, tv commercial crap. Please, somebody explain in layman's terms what Net Neutrality really means.

Answer 1

The technical description of the previous answer is correct. If a network is "neutral", the routers blindly send traffic where it needs to go. The do not give priority to any one piece of information over any other.

The most recent battle regarding network neutrality comes from Internet Service Providers wanting to be able to give certain content providers priority, for an extra fee. For example SomeMegaStoreOnline.com might pay an ISP so that people coming to it's web site experience better browsing speeds. Sounds great right? Except that content providers may pass the added expense onto their customers, who are already paying for their own internet access. Thus the customers are hit with a double whammy of sorts.

There are other issues regarding net neutrality as well. Some feel that certain "real time" protocols should be given priority over others. For example a VoIP packet should be given priorty over a web page request. This again seems to make sense, but causes other dilemmas down the road, such as the possibility that a service provider may effectively prioritize a certain protocol so low that it wouldn't function at all. Perhaps Comcast no longer wants Kazaa run on they're network, so they make sure it's packets are dead last priority.

If your interested, there is a very good book on the topic by Lawrence Lessig titled "The Future of Ideas".

Answer 2

From what I understand, right now the net is neutral. Meaning someones traffic from yahoo.com wont be handled any differently than someones traffic from some obscure geocities page thats not important.. Routers are oblivious to importance of traffic in most cases, they just route it no questions asked..

If they screw around and pass laws to give these large companies priority, then it will mean traffic from google, yahoo, aol, ect.. will be considered more important than anyone elese traffic, therefore gets priority and faster delivery, slowing down everything else thats not considered important.