Network Service Provider

4 Jun 1997

      Okay, I've got a question actually related to North American Network
Operations...here goes:

I'm currently the Network Admin for a medium sized ISP in Cincinnati 
Ohio.  We are currently multi-homed through US Sprint (Sprintlink), one
connection in DC one in Chicago. 

We are interested in diversifying across another Network Service Provider
backbone.  We currently run BGP4 with Sprint, and will be running it 
to our additional NSP.  We're working on getting our own netblock to have
us be able to announce our AS via both NSPs. 

My question is twofold:

1)  Are there recommendations on which NSP I should go with now, based on
    the fact that I currently have Sprintlink?  Our Sprint connections are
    a full DS3 and a full T1 (DS3 to Chicago, T1 to DC).  I want to buy 
    another DS3.

    We've placed an order for
    UUNet, however, they have now taken 160 days (they gave me a 120 day
    due date and missed it), and cannot give me a firm due date, and I'm 
    not convinced they will ever be able to deliver.  I'm tired of waiting.
    I looked at MCI, but the "InternetMCI voice mail system" is "Full".  So
    you can't even leave a message to have someone call you back 
    (800.582.1253, kinda funny since they spend all that money on advertising
    and customer's can't even contact them).

2)  What is the best way to handle the AS announcements?  I've got three
    netblocks from Sprint, but Sprint won't announce my more specific 
    routes (nor should they), so people will just route to the blocks
    Sprint is advertising.  If I announce the more specific routes out
    UUNet (for lack of another example), I'll start getting all my 
    inbound traffic down that pipe.

    From what I can tell, I'd be better off getting my own netblock from
    the InterNIC, and annoucing my own routes through both NSPs.  That way
    the Internet will make it's own routing decisions based on the 
    "closeness" of the routes (AS Path length, etc.).  I'd then renumber
    my internal network, and give Sprint their IPs back.

    Does that sound right?

Thanks in advance.  I've learned a great deal being on this list, and I'm 
going to put up with the signal-to-noise ratio for a while as long as there's
still information I can glean.

-- 
Robert A. Pickering Jr.                Internet Services Manager
Cincinnati Bell Telephone              rob@fuse.net

           A Rough Whimper of Insanity (Information Superhighway)

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