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by JustSomeNobody 2897 days ago
Then how is fast.com effective at all? It was created to show that ISPs were throttling Netflix, but if Netflix has boxes at peering points, this seems moot.
3 comments

They peer with Netflix for free then demand extra money to actually keep peering for free at proper capacity. They want money for connecting an extra cable to their router. It’s a protection racket pure and simple.
The speed test is running on said boxes at the peering points. It tests how fast your connection is to the open connect appliance.

https://medium.com/netflix-techblog/building-fast-com-4857fe...

Ahh... ok, thanks. That makes a lot of sense.
I'd guess it indicates capacity if you try to watch something that isn't cached?