If Your Internet Service Provider Is Screwing You, Here's How to Fight Back

Internet service in the U.S. is like the government: expensive, slow, and monopolized. But that comparison is ironic enough because the government may be your best hope against internet service providers serving you a shit sandwich. The Attorney General of New York, Eric T. Schneiderman, has launched a website to show you your internet speed and, then, let his office know if your provider is falsely advertising speeds. “New Yorkers should get the internet speeds they pay for. Too many of us may be paying for one thing, and getting another,” Schneiderman said in announcing the move. “By conducting these tests, consumers can uncover whether they are receiving the internet speeds they have paid for.” Boo-yah, Time Warner Cable, what’s up now?

If you don’t live in New York, it’s still well worth heading here to peep what your speed is. I did and it registered a solid 27.13 megabits per second — [11.7 Mbps is the U.S. average]((http://www.telecompetitor.com/akamai-u-s-average-broadband-speed-reaches-11-7-mbps/). Comcast advertises my speed to be at 25 Mbps, so that’s a major win, the opposite of an Aziz and his thread counts situation.

But, others haven’t been so lucky (and don’t live in New York). What to do? A redditer AlekseyP set up a computer and Twitter account to automatically blast Comcast every time his internet speed goes below a certain threshold. Savage nerdery alert:

As you might expect, his service has improved. If you don’t know to set up an auto bot via a Raspberry Pi like AlekseyP — that sentence almost gave me a seizure — just take that new speed test, screenshot it, and put your provider on notice via email or Twitter. Eventually, they will have to respond. Depending on your internet speed, you might have to wait a bit to hear back.