: "Because of the way TCP/IP works, it's an open network," Keromytis : said. "Other network technologies don't have that problem. They have : other issues, but only IP is subject to this difficulty with abuse."
If networks properly filtered the source IP's of packets exiting or entering their networks to only the valid delegations for that network, this would be far less of a problem: we could at least get *some* accountability going.
Of course, the still high number of bogon routes illustrate that very few folks (if any) really care.
in another thread tonight i see subjects like "lazy network operators" and at first glance, those are the people you're describing (who don't really care.) however, that's simple-minded. "because of the way tcp/ip works..." is a very good lead-in toward the actual cause of this apparent non-caring / laziness. because of the way ip works, and because of the way human nature works, many of the things that would have to be done to fix this problem have assymetric cost/benefit. if a network provider isn't lazy, then everyone except them will benefit from that non-laziness. human nature says that ain't happening. even though i try every day, it probably is too late to redesign human nature. the assymetric cost/benefit is an emergency property of fundamental design principles in tcp/ip, so it's no surprise that ipv6 didn't do much about this "weakness". attempting to symmetrize cost/benefit without design changes in either human nature or the tcp/ip protocol suite has had mixed results. (i.e., MAPS.) so, the article sean quoted is all very entertaining, but says nothing new, which is sad, because i for one would really like to hear something new. -- Paul Vixie