How to choose a transit provider?

Fri Dec 14 16:31:41 UTC 2018

Tier 1s are just as succeptible to outages and peering issues as anyone
else. Not to say they're any less, I work for one after all, but one
shouldn't assume they're always the best for every application. As an
example, Hurricane is decidedly not a Tier 1, but have one of the best
peered networks out there.

Well peered is a huge plus but that's hard to measure. Cogent, peers with
Google in just a few spots so if you want to get to 8.8.8.8 from Dallas
you're going to go via Atlanta even though they could peer right in TX.
That's a bummer if you've hardcoded Google DNS into anything. But how would
you know that unless you do a lot of testing with looking glasses?

The choice also depends on what you're doing with the bandwidth:

If you're a content provider, for example, you may want to buy transit from
AT&T, Comcast, or Charter, not because they're the best, but because they
have better access to the eyeballs. Voice guys may want a "performance
optimized" blendwidth for lower latency. Etc.

-M

On Fri, Dec 14, 2018, 10:23 Mehmet Akcin <mehmet at akcin.net wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> I have started writing a blog which I hope it would help buy transit
> services from providers by doing various due diligences(technical) i wanted
> to reach out and ask nanog community’s thoughts on this.
>
> What are some of your checklist items ? Price? Their directly peered
> networks? If they are tier 2,3 who they use as tier 1-2? Are the onnet? I
> am sure list goes on and on on...
>
> Thanks a lot for your help. I plan to write the blog this month and
> publish.
>
> Mehmet
> --
> Mehmet
> +1-424-298-1903
>
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