[ On Sunday, June 3, 2001 at 01:04:00 (-0400), Richard A. Steenbergen wrote: ]
Subject: Re: 95th Percentile again!
Actually I was refering to the more common methods of rate based measurement, MRTG.
Well, MRTG works the way I said, but it also fails to account for several very critical issues necessary for any auditable accounting system. Using it for billing is, how shall I say, not smart! If I'm not mistaken it's author even warns against this kind of use. Certainly cricket users are warned regularly not to use it for billing purposes, and it's even less likely to make an error than MRTG (particularly recent versions that do NOT use the "derive" method for counter variables -- "derive" mimics MRTG's errant methods, but is more "robust" in the face of errant SNMP agents, at least for capacity planning purposes).
The names of the providers who use this will be omitted. :P
Usually the errors that can happen to MRTG will be in the customer's favour, but not always. Any providers using MRTG to calculate rates for billing purposes should probably call their lawyers on Monday AM and make sure their bases are covered should any of their customers gain even half a clue. Any customers who are being billed by an ISP using MRTG should quickly install their own more accurate and properly designed accounting system and monitor their end of the pipe to make sure that any errors in MRTGs measurements remain in their favour. -- Greg A. Woods +1 416 218-0098 VE3TCP <gwoods@acm.org> <woods@robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>