June 2000 - Test - lists.nanog.org

Stop Wcom and SPRINT from merging... customer service nightmare... (Snyder article)
by Ehud Gavron 27 Jun '00

27 Jun '00

http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2000/0626snyder.html : ---------------------------------------------------------------- MCIWorldCom should finish what's already on its plateBy Bottom Line . Joel Snyder Network World, 06/26/00MCIWorldCom is continuing to push hard for its merger with Sprint, now offering to dispose of one of the Internet's unappreciated jewels, Sprint's Internet business. All this is in the name of competition, since WorldCom would presumably control more or less all the packets, phone calls and fiber optics in the world if no one was watching. I have one request to make of the regulators in Brussels and Washington: Please, please, please, don't let WorldCom and Sprint merge. My plea has nothing to do with competition; it has everything to do with customer service. In his insatiable quest to beat Bill Gates and Larry Ellison to become the richest technodude in North America, WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers has forgotten those poor people who actually made him rich -the customers. Since the megamonolithic-monstrosity of WorldCom was created, service has gone to hell. Nothing can be done in real time; nobody is empowered to solve problems. Oh, and prices have gone up. Way up. All WorldCom has brought to the table is an enormous cadre of obsequious customer service reps ("I'm terribly sorry you had to hold, sir"), manning the phones 24 hours a day, who don't seem to be able to do anything. As a customer of the new, improved, WorldCom, my company hasn't seen the benefits of consolidation. One bill for all services? That would be OK if the bill were correct. But when WorldCom acquired Brooks Fiber in 1998, errors were made in moving the billing data from one system to another. We've been complaining about it for 20 months, and WorldCom still hasn't figured it out. One contact for sales? Sounds great, but the benefits escape us. Line installs and deinstalls now have to move through the WorldCom bureaucracy, and a six-month delay to do anything is average. One company for all your needs? That would be wonderful if it were really one company. In March we ordered a circuit from UUNET, WorldCom's Internet service provider division, and had every expectation that it would be installed within 30 days. The official UUNET service-level agreement (SLA) is 40 business days. We're still waiting for that line to be installed - they blew the SLA a long time ago. Meanwhile, the UUNET techs are trying to figure out a way to make the combined fiber networks of UUNET, MCI, MFS and WorldCom stretch from Tucson to Phoenix. Sprint customers, beware! Inside WorldCom there are pockets of excellence, people who know their stuff and make the network run. But the bureaucratic monstrosity smothering them makes WorldCom a darn hard company to do business with. Will things get better? Perhaps. WorldCom certainly can't continue to do business this way. As long-term contracts begin to end, customers will search for other suppliers. The end result, today, is that WorldCom hasn't been able to completely merge the companies it already has. And now it's hungry for more? Someone should tell Bernie Ebbers he can't have dessert until he finishes his peas. Snyder, a Network World Test Alliance partner, is a senior partner at Opus One in Tucson, Ariz. He can be reached at Joel.Snyder(a)opus1.com. Copyright 2000 Network World, Inc. All rights reserved ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent by: Joel Snyder - mailto:jms@opus1.com ................................................................ This message was sent from http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2000/0626snyder.html on Network World Fusion http://www.nwfusion.com/ ................................................................

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Re: public key service
by L. Sassaman 27 Jun '00

27 Jun '00

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > > so, thanks to many nanogians, i now have a selection of servers, multi- > > addressed servers, an ldap server, ... i can try when i need this service. > > needless to say, i am not impressed. while i guess i can limp along like > > this, it does not feel like what i would call a production quality > > service. > > Well, the fundamental point you haven't mentioned here is that the PGP keyserver network, past and present, is entirely a volunteer-based service. The exception is the server that NAI runs, since NAI has a vested interest in having a keyserver available for users to access, but even so, there is not as of yet any commercial entity selling access to, or guaranteeing access to, a PGP keyserver (as far as I know -- correct me if I am wrong). One thing I would like to see is more ISPs running keyservers for the use of their customers. A few of them do. Thre are other ways that companies could provide services that involve keyserver access, but I can't go into that here. I attended the Keyserver Managers Symposium in Holland last month. A lot of great ideas were presented, and a lot of problems discussed. One thing is clear, and that is that the current PGP keyserver network needs to be redesigned if it is to scale to another order of magnitude as far as capacity. I expect that we will see good things happen in this regard in the next year or so. - --Len. __ L. Sassaman System Administrator | "Everything looks bad Technology Consultant | if you remember it." icq.. 10735603 | pgp.. finger://ns.quickie.net/rabbi | --Homer Simpson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: OpenPGP Encrypted Email Preferred. iD8DBQE5V8eIPYrxsgmsCmoRAvx0AJ485IzsUvkqp84yuGLMeOyIBdAOKQCg1K5z k2hLYtQksHPz+e5sz1xS140= =bvS8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Fiber cut in Chicago area?
by Jason Legate 27 Jun '00

27 Jun '00

I didn't see a posting from Sean, yet, but there apparantly was a multi telco fiber cut in the Chicago area. I have no additional details at this time. Anyone know anything? -j -- /--------------------------/ Jason Legate \------------------------\ | jlegate(a)sitesmith.com | SiteSmith, Inc. | | 24x7 Call Center | http://www.sitesmith.com | | 888.898.7667 | PGP Key ID - 0xA855AAC3 | +---------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | Fingerprint - 2D5F 87A0 26E6 A65B 6837 D100 FB54 A972 A855 AAC3 | \------------------------------------------------------------------/

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Re: public key service
by Steven M. Bellovin 27 Jun '00

27 Jun '00

In message <20000626172646.A1166(a)eiv.com>, Shawn McMahon writes: > >On Mon, Jun 26, 2000 at 01:39:49PM -0700, Randy Bush wrote: >> >> so, thanks to many nanogians, i now have a selection of servers, multi- >> addressed servers, an ldap server, ... i can try when i need this service. >> needless to say, i am not impressed. while i guess i can limp along like >> this, it does not feel like what i would call a production quality service. > >Randy, no offense, but it sounds like you have some seriously unrealistic >expectations here. > >Exactly how much are you paying for this service? It sounds like you should >receive a full refund. No, Randy has a need -- an operational need that I suspect many on this list share. His note simply says that the current system is inadequate for production use; a more recent note asks, in about these words, "what can he (and other operators) do" to help the situation. --Steve Bellovin

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public key service
by Randy Bush 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

pgp public key service is becoming critical infrastructure. unfortunately, i have been unable to get useful key lookup for a long time. i have been trying <http://pgpkeys.mit.edu/> at jeff schiller's recommendation, and <http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html> which used to work once upon a time. neither work for me. what are people using? and, if no one else is succeeding, is it time for the isp community to field a reliable service? randy

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Re: Using RPSL in real life with the IRR's
by Michael Shields 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

In article <200006261357.JAA17553(a)outtolunch.merit.edu>, <gerald(a)merit.edu> wrote: > relies on the user to put in a value. The software only checks to > dissallow dates in the future (much to the detriment of our friends > on the other side of the international date line). Since no time zone is specified, surely the only correct interpretation is that the datestamp is UTC. -- Shields.

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Re: FW: public key service
by L. Sassaman 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > > I'm willing to run one, or at the very least put up a site with > > information on them. If anyone is interested in discussing this feel > > free to email me off list. Any good resources for keyserver information? Would it be possible to take this thread to the keyserver-folks list? I'm not subscribed to NANOG anymore, and have to have these messages forwarded to me. Additionally, that list has a high Clue Quotent, and discussing the specifics of setting up a server and joining the keyserver network might be more productive there. __ L. Sassaman System Administrator | "Everything looks bad Technology Consultant | if you remember it." icq.. 10735603 | pgp.. finger://ns.quickie.net/rabbi | --Homer Simpson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: OpenPGP Encrypted Email Preferred. iD8DBQE5V9PTPYrxsgmsCmoRAkhwAJ9fjdcKd6SaKfQDCdJ04RYVj1OSCgCfRpyr 3J4Mt9nKKeieqDgwbBFSkjo= =sUUd -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: public key service
by Joseph Birthisel 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

> One thing I would like to see is more ISPs running keyservers for the use > of their customers. A few of them do. Thre are other ways that companies > could provide services that involve keyserver access, but I can't go into > that here. > > I attended the Keyserver Managers Symposium in Holland last month. A lot > of great ideas were presented, and a lot of problems discussed. One thing > is clear, and that is that the current PGP keyserver network needs to be > redesigned if it is to scale to another order of magnitude as far as > capacity. I expect that we will see good things happen in this regard in > the next year or so. I'm willing to run one, or at the very least put up a site with information on them. If anyone is interested in discussing this feel free to email me off list. Any good resources for keyserver information? Joseph

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Re: public key service
by L. Sassaman 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 FYI, certserver.pgp.com, keys.pgp.com, keyserver.pgp.com, pgpkeys.mit.edu, and keys.nai.com are all the same server (208.228.228.80), listening on port 11371 (HTTP) and 389 (LDAP) and 689 (LDAPS). If one doesn't work, the rest of the above probably won't either. The server I tend to use in cases when keyserver.pgp.com is not functioning properly is horowitz.surfnet.nl:11371. It also listens to LDAP on 11370 and LDAPS on 11369. pgp.ai.mit.edu is BAL's server, home of the original PGP keyserver. It isn't as zippy as the other two, but has a decent uptime ratio. It only listens on 11371, and you can't do the advanced LDAP queries that you can do with the other servers. www.keyserver.net has a cool web interface for searching for keys, but it sometimes takes a little work to find a server that is up and responding in a timely fashion. This network group uses Highware's OpenKeyserver. There is no LDAP support. I don't use pgp.net, so I can't comment one way or another on that group of servers. I believe they are mainly using the older pksd software by Marc Horowitz. Theoretically, all the servers syncronize with each other and there is no difference in the data contained on them. However, the server that tends to have the most up to date data is keyserver.pgp.com. Second to that is horowitz.surfnet.nl. If you want more info on the keyserver network, you should check out the keyserver mailing list. There is subscription info at http://www.highware.com/main-oks.html (it's the list hosted at flame.org) - --Len. > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Valdis.Kletnieks(a)vt.edu [SMTP:Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu] > > Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 1:25 PM > > To: Randy Bush > > Cc: nanog(a)nanog.org > > Subject: Re: public key service > > > > On Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:25:43 PDT, Randy Bush <randy(a)psg.com> said: > > > > > > pgp public key service is becoming critical infrastructure. > > unfortunately, > > > i have been unable to get useful key lookup for a long time. i have > > been > > > trying > > > <http://pgpkeys.mit.edu/> > > > at jeff schiller's recommendation, and > > > <http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html> > > > which used to work once upon a time. neither work for me. > > > > EXMH 2.1.2 and later shipped with http://keys.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup > > as the URL to check by default. I would have put www.pgp.net as the > > server, > > but of the 5 servers I checked, 2 were net-unreachable and one tossed a > > 404. > > -- > > Valdis Kletnieks > > Operating Systems Analyst > > Virginia Tech > > > __ L. Sassaman System Administrator | "Everything looks bad Technology Consultant | if you remember it." icq.. 10735603 | pgp.. finger://ns.quickie.net/rabbi | --Homer Simpson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: OpenPGP Encrypted Email Preferred. iD8DBQE5V8UKPYrxsgmsCmoRAu9gAKC2JKN6b1B+y2bsN813XJaFqP6UpwCdFrHb 7Fp3uDw+VgVdoSuiUwTQyww= =dDMM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: public key service
by ktsolis＠mindspring.com 26 Jun '00

26 Jun '00

Fairly reliable key servers horowitz.surfnet.nl:11371 certserver.pgp.com pgp.ai.mit.edu:11371 Thanks to Len Sassaman at PGP for the heads-up. cheers, Kristen -----Original Message----- From: Robert M. Enger [SMTP:enger@seka.erols.net] Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 12:14 PM To: Randy Bush; nanog(a)nanog.org Subject: Re: public key service Randy: I have been using: http://wwwkeys.us.pgp.net It does not seem to be as heavily loaded as many of the other servers. (This posting is now likely to destroy that advantage :-) Having said that, it still takes 10 seconds or more to get a response. It would be good to have a set of servers that had enough horsepower to return answers more promptly. Bob At 11:25 AM 6/26/00 -0700, Randy Bush wrote: >pgp public key service is becoming critical infrastructure. unfortunately, >i have been unable to get useful key lookup for a long time. i have been >trying > <http://pgpkeys.mit.edu/> >at jeff schiller's recommendation, and > <http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html> >which used to work once upon a time. neither work for me. > >what are people using? > >and, if no one else is succeeding, is it time for the isp community to field >a reliable service? > >randy

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