On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Carl Payne wrote:
The whole point of getting the bigger address space is to be better than your competition (multi-homed, etc etc.)
The point of a larger address space is ease of deployment. The current thinking is, "We don't want it to be easier if it wastes numbers. Work a little harder."
How exactly does a larger address space ease deployment of an ISP? "Current thinking" of who? Sure we should conserve space, but that was not my argument. My argument is that small ISPs are *NOT* going to cooperate to get larger blocks. They use any tactic to make themselves out to be 'larger fish' in that network bowl. Ever seen a nasty catfight between small local ISPs? I have. Not pretty. Cooperation? Not likely.
Besides, if you think for one minute that the customers of most ISPs give a hoot about larger address space, or that being multi-homed will GUARANTEE a dialup customer will go to them, then you'd be interested to hear about my real estate ventures...
I have no interest in your real estate, but I *KNOW* that customers of most, if not all ISPs care about the reliability of their network, ergo, the connectivity that their ISP has to its neighbors and that IS a selling point. If your sales people (for all of you small ISPs out there that don't have connections to 3+ NAPs) aren't using the "We are connected at TWO points where [insert rival network name here]'s network is only connected to ONE!" pitch, you have the wrong sales people. BTW, I'm not talking about dialup clients. I would not do a dialup ISP for all the AOL/GNN customers in the world. Now, talk ISDN & T1, I might.. just maybe... NAH... -abc PS: can you format your text for 80 columns next time so that I don't have to do it in my reply? PPS: can you explain your train of thought on 'larger address spaces are easier to deploy' so that I can attempt to follow it? \ Alan B. Clegg Just because I can \ Internet Staff does not mean I will. \ gateway.com, inc. \ <http://www.gateway.com/>