The Gorgon's Knot. Was: Re: Verio Peering Question

Patrick W. Gilmore patrick at ianai.net
Sat Sep 29 01:06:15 UTC 2001


At 05:45 PM 9/28/2001 -0700, Sean M. Doran wrote:
 >
 >Sean Donelan wrote:

 >| And who could forget the popular "Don't buy a circuit from small ISP, 
because
 >| they won't be able to get past the Internet filters."  I went through
 >| a half-dozen Sprint sales people in different parts of the country,
 >| and by 1996 or so they all had the spiel down pat.
 >
 >Wouldn't it have been easier for small ISP to just aggregate?
 >I mean, /19s got through after all!

No, it would not have helped.  Assume the prospective customer has a link 
to UUNET and a /24, but wants a second link for [insert reason].  He now 
goes to SmallISP.com and asks for info on getting a second T1.  Then the 
Sprint sales guy calls him and mentions that IF AND ONLY IF he buys a line 
from Sprint, will Sprint hear his /24.

Of course, even if his line to UUNET is down, UUNET is still announcing the 
larger CIDR, which is heard by Sprint, and UUNET re-route any traffic 
destined for that /24 to SmallISP.com.  But that is lost on this 
prospective customer (if it was ever explained at all - which it definitely 
would not be from the Sprint sales guy).  All he hears is that one of the 
largest networks in the world will not accept his announcement.


NOTE: I am not saying this is good or bad, simply saying that what you 
suggest would not be useful in this situation.


 >The ONLY reason this became a competitive advantage for Sprint
 >was because it's COMPETITORS didn't have the brains to impose
 >a similar filter.
 >
 >Honestly, nobody anticipated they'd be so stupid, but good luck
 >is good luck....

Or perhaps they realized this would hurt those prospective customers.  Or 
perhaps any of a 100 other reasons.

"I realize that this is hard for you to wrap your brain around," but please 
believe there may actually be other people on the planet who have the 
brains to understand what they are doing and perhaps make a different 
decision than you made for a good reason.


 >	Sean. (who had left by the time of "a few years")

--
TTFN,
patrick




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