Throttling Detector

Streams a 10 MB payload across two paths to detect QoS-based throttling. Asymmetric throughput usually means traffic shaping on one of the paths.

Test downloads ~20 MB total (10 MB per path). Skip if you are on metered mobile data.

Latency (median)

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Cloudflare anycast

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Our endpoint

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Cloudflare anycast usually lands on the closest edge to you. Our endpoint goes via the host that serves this site. Big variance between them suggests the path matters — typical of QoS-based throttling, asymmetric routing, or international-link congestion.

What you can do

Asymmetric throughput suggests traffic shaping on the slower path. Symmetric-but-slow indicates baseline bandwidth limits. Two non-network factors are worth ruling out first.

Try off-hours

Russian QoS rules often soften at night (00:00-08:00 MSK). If your test now shows heavy asymmetry, run it again at 03:00 — if symmetric returns, the shaping is time-of-day-based. Confirms it's shaping, not infrastructure capacity.

Switch network or carrier

Mobile carriers (Tele2, Yota, T2) often pass traffic Rostelecom rate-limits. Tethering from a mobile hotspot is a quick A/B test. Long term: a mobile line as fallback covers moments when wired path degrades.

How traffic shaping works

Throttling — not blocking — is the QoS policy where some flows get less bandwidth than others. The decision happens per-flow at routing boxes (the same TSPU stack that handles blocks). The discriminator varies: destination ASN (any Google CDN IP is rate-limited), SNI in the TLS ClientHello (any handshake to googlevideo.com), or behavioral patterns (long-lived large-payload connection consistent with video streaming). The user sees: YouTube is slow but Cloudflare is fast, both on the same network. This tool's two-path test surfaces shaping by comparing throughput through different paths. Symmetric = no shaping. Asymmetric = shaping on the slower path. The verdict doesn't tell you who's shaping (could be ISP, regulator, transit provider) — only that someone is.

Technical tool for diagnosing the quality of a network connection. Does not provide means of access to information resources whose access is restricted under applicable law.