botnets: web servers, end-systems and Vint Cerf

Fri Feb 16 13:20:08 UTC 2007

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:
> I hear enough from people who *do* work at Some Other Place. :)

Hearing about it is not the same as experiencing it first-hand.

> Never claimed *our* solution would work everywhere (heck, I even admit it
> isn't 100% effective for *us*).  A very large chunk of what *we* do would be
> doomed to failure at any organization where the problem set includes "make a
> profit selling connectivity to cost-conscious general consumers".

The Other ISPs do all of the things you mentioned, except they don't give
their techs free rooms.  Instead they give out $50 or $100 gift cards for 
in-home or in-store techs from several consumer electronics chains to fix 
customer computers; which may be similar to the level of expertise you
would get from unpaid residential dorm techs.  However, the environment 
and populations aren't necessarily comparable.

Understanding why those things have been doomed to failure is an important 
difference. It isn't because ISPs unwilling to try them. But instead
its because ISPs have tried those things (and many other things).  They
fail not because of the cost side of the equation, but because they don't 
have much effect on the problem over the long-term in that environment and 
population.

If someone (vendor, academic, etc) comes up with something that works 
well for the environment and population facing the general public ISP,
there are a lot of ISPs with money constantly asking what can they 
buy/pay/do to fix it.  However, they are also very skeptical, because
this is a well-travelled road, and they've seen a lot of claims that
didn't pan out.