request for help w/ ATT and terminology

Scott Berkman scott.berkman at reignmaker.net
Wed Jan 16 22:09:18 UTC 2008


Mike,

	Generally a netblock is homed somewhere if it doesn't have an
association with an ASN.  These will often be listed as "non-portable",
and then each ISP would have to choose to allow you to use that netblock
on its network or not.

	Based on your company name and domain I assume your netblock is
192.67.91.0/24, which shows as a Direct Assignment, so you should have the
right to move it.

	I think what you are asking is unusual because you have address
space you are trying to move, but no ASN for the carrier to advertise the
route to.

	In terms of terminology I think "advertise our netblock in your
AS" is about as close as you can get, and you are at ATT's mercy because
they have the right to create their own policies about advertising
client's netblocks as part of their AS.  I would say they would most
likely want to handle this by assigning you an iBGP ASN so you can
advertise that block to them privately, and then they would aggregate that
advertisement into their eBGP advertisements for their AS.  There should
be no reason to require 2 distinct routers just to use BGP.

	Your other option is to get a cheap link from another provider
that does not include any usage, and use that as the second (backup) link.
At that point you could get an ASN assigned by ARIN.

	-Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu] On Behalf Of
Mike Donahue
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 4:37 PM
To: nanog at merit.edu
Subject: request for help w/ ATT and terminology


Hi.  I'm by no means an ip/networking expert, and we're having some
difficulty communicating with the boffins at AT&T.  Any
input/advice/translation would be appreciated.

We own our own class C netblock.  Our previous provider, Sprint, had no
problem "adding" it to their network/advertising it (that circuit is now
disconnected).  We've started using an AT&T colo facility, and we're
having a lot of trouble trying to get AT&T to do the same thing there that
Sprint was able to do for us.  AT&T is refusing to advertise our
netblock/path it to our cabinet unless we have an AS number.  ARIN has
refused to give us one on the grounds (rightly so) that we're not
multi-homed.   AT&T says they'll give  us a temporary ASN, and want us
to do eBGP for our netblock.  They sent the technical information over
today, and they want two distinct routers to act as the bgp peers...

Anyway, it's all getting (for us) pretty complicated.   We're a fairly
small firm and just want an Ethernet handoff with our IP block on it.
Sprint didn't blink at the request, but AT&T...  We're getting a good rate
from AT&T for the IP services because it's at their colo.
Switching back to Sprint would definitely be more costly.

Questions:

1.  Is what we're asking for unusual/uncalled for?
2.  What's the technical terminology for the request for AT&T to simply
start advertising our netblock called?  I'm wondering if they're not
understanding our request.

Any other comments/input/suggestions welcomed.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Donahue
WATG






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