[NIC-960209.1757] Routing Problem (fwd)

Craig A. Huegen c-huegen at quad.quadrunner.com
Sun Feb 11 23:37:09 UTC 1996


On Sun, 11 Feb 1996, William Allen Simpson wrote:

> > From: Robert Du Gaue <rdugaue at calweb.com>
> 
> > How the hell can I be a successful ISP when first, I probably
> > can not justify 64 blocks (and if I do Sprint may change it to 128
> > anyways!)
> 
> Let's think about this for a moment.  How do you define "successful"?
> 

It's a Catch-22.  To provide the multi-homed, reliable services that many 
successful providers offer their customers, you need your own IP space.  
If the InterNIC isn't handing out blocks of routable size, you can't 
exactly have the most flexibility with your links.

> If you mean, you already have lots of customers signed up before you
> ask for your first block, then of course you won't have any problem
> justifying 64 or more C's.  And you will be able to afford to run your
> own continental links to the various NAPs.

A good point, but I, as a customer, am looking for a provider which is 
stable already; I'm not going to sign up to a service which says "we'll 
become multi-homed and fully accessible just as soon as we get X 
customers".  I've seen others sign up for services which promise 
this--you find they go down quickly because they tend to not meet the X 
customer line.

> I do not see how having no customers signed up qualifies as successful.

You have to offer services that people want, with good quality, before 
you can expect many customers to sign up.  If you need X customers before 
you can provide those services, then you end up in the Catch-22 loop again.

> On the other hand, are you saying you are "successful", but you are not
> running your own continental network?  Why then, you must be connected
> to "one of the MAJOR" providers, correct?  It only takes one.  You get
> your addresses from them, not from the global pool.

Not every ISP has the investment capital to immediately run high-speed 
links to every NAP in the nation.  But, that aside, are your customers 
going to use your service if they know that the Y% of people on the net 
using SprintLink are going to be unable to reach your network?

/cah



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