Ungodly packet loss rates

Tue Oct 22 05:39:58 UTC 1996

Original message <Pine.3.89.9610212319.A8247-0100000 at portal>
From: Robert Laughlin <robert at portal.dx.net>
Date: Oct 21, 23:55
Subject: Re: Ungodly packet loss rates
> 
> I agree the Internet performs poorly between a lot of sites.  There is 
> much we can do to make it work better.  My prediction is it is more 
> likely to get worse than better in the near term.....:(  My current "pet 
> peeve" is that peering is more political than technical these days.
...

I've been watching this seriously since early 1992, and a bit before then.
If anything peering is much LESS political than it used to be. There are
far more smallish providers who are willing to peer with anyone, and lots
more who are willing to turn up a peering session to fix a customer complaint
than there used to be. In fact, where we used to need to go exert our
political know-how a bit more to get peering, we now regularly get calls
from providers who want to peer with *us*, and we're small (at least
this month).

There are only a few entities who have "difficult" peering policies and
proceedures, once you eliminate those who have only valid technical
requirements and no additional red tape.

The current state isn't perfect. Not even very good, for some parties.
But the trend looks *great* from here.

-matthew kaufman
 matthew at scruz.net