On 3-Feb-2006, at 15:59, Richard A Steenbergen wrote:
With all due respect to the INOC-DBA project, which is actually somewhat interesting (from a "I want to play with free IP phones too" perspective if nothing else), it isn't a workable solution to operational contacts yet.
I think you are understating its usefulness, somewhat. Whilst it's an uncontested fact that you can't hope to reach The Right Person by dialling their ASN in all cases, I find it useful for probably around one in five people that I need to call. That's a pretty good strike rate, especially since if you *can* reach someone through INOC-DBA, it's almost always the Right Person, and it almost never involves an IVR.
And then of course there is that whole "using the IP network to contact someone about an IP network issue" thing that doesn't seem terribly well thought out...
You could also argue that trying to contact someone about a major fibre cut using the PSTN is also doomed to failure, at least for some fibre cuts. That's no reason to never try using the PSTN. Not all problems with remote AS Y involve a complete inability to exchange packets with AS Y.
Admittedly I haven't looked at the INOC-DBA stuff in a while, there could have been some massive advancement that I'm not aware of, but I suspect that the situation is still "more work needed". Existing phone systems, call centers, and engineers with cellphones, seems to be a much safer bet right now.
Although the provisioning system seems to be under active development, and sometimes exhibits hiccups, the system as a whole is fine. More people should try it. Joe