Hello,
You mean that if I have data to go to Sprint, typically a Sprint customer who has requested said data, that I'm not supposed to route it to Sprint unless *I* have some agreement with Sprint?!?
It scares me to see this question on this list.
Aiyee. Let us imagine, if we will, a truck. This truck has a rather odd reddish-orange circle-ish emblem, and the letters S-P-R-I-N-T on it. You notice inside a cellular phone. By what logic would you use the cellular phone for a personal call to a chap who happens to have Sprint as an LD provider? And by what logic would you send packets to a node you aren't "authorized" to? Silly analogies often provoke interesting defenses.... :-) * _Peering_ means that A and B agree to exchange routes and traffic for a certain set of customers/dependants of A and B. * _Transit_ means that A agrees to takes B's packets and get them to their destination (regardless of where it is) and that A will accept/advertise traffic/routes for B. * _Stealing_ is when B uses A's resources without permission or agreement. At least, that's what I understand.... -alan