Provider credibility - does it matter? was Re: Inter-provider

Karl Denninger karl at Mcs.Net
Fri Oct 25 18:33:43 UTC 1996


> At 8:36 PM -0700 10/24/96, Vadim Antonov wrote:
> >Note that i didn't even talk about less measurabe, but way too
> >more important things like hosting of information suppliers.
> >Say, Big Provider connects 1000 web sites; Small Provider hosts
> >1 site -- benefit from peering in terms of Web site diversity to
> >the Big Provider's customers is 0.1%.  To Small Provider's
> >customers the benefit of peering is 99.9%.
> 
> Of course this will show up as equal traffic in both directions, so it
> would be a wash under settlements.  To the extent that one side's sites are
> better for surfing (e.g. higher wavers :-) or has proportionally fewer
> customers, traffic will be unequal.
> 
> Roger

The volume of traffic flow in each direction is irrelavent.

In all cases where we're talking about *peering* (not transit) the source 
or destination of the traffic under consideration is someone from whom you
collect money to provide service to.

You are *obligated*, by ethic if not by law, to provide the best service
possible given your installed infrastructure and capability to do so.

Asking a *third* party to pay you for something that you've *already been
paid for* is unethical in the extreme and, to the extent that providers are
trying this in the marketplace, they should be exposed to public scrutiny.

These kinds of extortionist tactics need to be brought out in the light of
day where everyone can see them -- especially the customers of the providers
who are doing these things.  

Only through a full public disclosure and discussion of this practice will
those provider's customers come to understand that their provider, on an
ethical level at minimum, is *not* providing to them what they think 
they're paying for.

--
--
Karl Denninger (karl at MCS.Net)| MCSNet - The Finest Internet Connectivity
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