Anyone heard of INOC-DBA?

Fri Feb 3 21:19:43 UTC 2006

On 3-Feb-2006, at 15:59, Richard A Steenbergen wrote:

> With all due respect to the INOC-DBA project, which is actually  
> somewhat
> interesting (from a "I want to play with free IP phones too"  
> perspective
> if nothing else), it isn't a workable solution to operational contacts
> yet.

I think you are understating its usefulness, somewhat.

Whilst it's an uncontested fact that you can't hope to reach The  
Right Person by dialling their ASN in all cases, I find it useful for  
probably around one in five people that I need to call.

That's a pretty good strike rate, especially since if you *can* reach  
someone through INOC-DBA, it's almost always the Right Person, and it  
almost never involves an IVR.

> And then of course there is that whole "using the IP network to  
> contact
> someone about an IP network issue" thing that doesn't seem terribly  
> well
> thought out...

You could also argue that trying to contact someone about a major  
fibre cut using the PSTN is also doomed to failure, at least for some  
fibre cuts. That's no reason to never try using the PSTN.

Not all problems with remote AS Y involve a complete inability to  
exchange packets with AS Y.

> Admittedly I haven't looked at the INOC-DBA stuff in a
> while, there could have been some massive advancement that I'm not  
> aware
> of, but I suspect that the situation is still "more work needed".  
> Existing
> phone systems, call centers, and engineers with cellphones, seems  
> to be a
> much safer bet right now.

Although the provisioning system seems to be under active  
development, and sometimes exhibits hiccups, the system as a whole is  
fine. More people should try it.

Joe