I agree with you, Andy. I run bgp-confederation in my network with IGP divided into subASes. Your situation is a little bit different from mine without any iBGP sessions now. But the problem is similar, AS path length is never considered in route selection. I set MED statically. Thank you Avi and Andy for the information of "set metric +/-[VALUE]" statement. I'll try it. Route reflecter and confederation seem similar to each other to solve iBGP mesh problem, and nowaday reflecter is preferred to confed. But I think confederation is great since it enables us to divide IGP into subASes. And in such a network configuration, it is natural that AS path length is considered for the route selection. How do you like this idea, folks? : Andy McConnell <andym@nttlabs.com> wrote as below : at Mon, 9 Mar 1998 08:57:29 -0800 (PST) ; : :| But it isn't considered IBGP within the confederation. The router makes a :| distinction between routes learned from an IBGP peer (internal) and a :| confederation EBGP peer (confederation-external) and will ALWAYS pick the :| external route, all other items above it in the selection list being :| equal. :| :| I've eliminated trying to increase the AS path, since it's ignored within :| the confederation. :| :| Setting the MED is the crux of the problem - I can set it "statically", :| but the idea is to make the whole confederation dynamic. I want the :| confederation to work like a true "internet". (Yes, I'm asking for the :| world...) :| :| -Andy :| ----- MAEMURA Akinori Network Engineer, C&C Internet Service mesh, NEC Corporation, JAPAN maem@mesh.ad.jp, maemura@mms.mt.nec.co.jp