Internet outages

Sun Jun 15 19:53:41 UTC 1997

>Here's a question about the content of nanog (the list)...  I was
>originally pointed to nanog as a place to hear about Internet
>outage/problems.  Well, so far (over about a month), I think I've seen two

In theory, you should be able to get this information from your
direct provider.  While every written peering agreement I've seen
includes a paragraph about notifying other providers about scheduled
and unscheduled outages; it is rare in customer agreements.  Unlike
the telephone, electrical, or nuclear industries; there is no government
reporting requirements.  In the 'new' privatized Internet, it is up to
you to negotiate with your provider and for providers to negotiate
with each other.

I've talked to a number of managers at large and small providers.  They
say they don't see any "real" customer demand for this.  "Real" being
defined in management terms "affecting the bottom line."

The response for the engineers at those providers is also fairly
predicatable.  The engineers say "Would you rather we spend the time
fixing the problem, or telling you there is a problem?"

Fortunately there is a wide range of providers.  If you look around,
I suspect you will find some providers are a bit more proactive about
informing their customers than others.
-- 
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
  Affiliation given for identification not representation