Well, I don't think I will need to be reminded not to buy Internet service from your organization.
Why not? We don't run the Internet, we just connect people to it.
As has been said about New Yorker cartoons, if you don't get it, no amount of explanation will help. Scott
On Sat, 4 Nov 1995, Scott Bradner wrote:
Well, I don't think I will need to be reminded not to buy Internet service from your organization.
Why not? We don't run the Internet, we just connect people to it.
As has been said about New Yorker cartoons, if you don't get it, no amount of explanation will help.
Give me one example of an ISP that will take responsibility for fixing a problem that is outside their control and is also outside the control of the companies with which they have contracted for service. We can try to help other people fix their problems so our customers can get service, but "trying" is just about the limit. I have helped Compuserve fix email gateway problems, a small California college fix DNS problems, the Internic fix errors in the .com zone file, and so on. This is become I am a nice guy and have some ability to pinpoint the actual source of problems. But it is not a service that I promise to my customers or that I contract to perform. In an anarchical webwork of relationships like the Internet, that is the best that anyone can do. To do differently would mean changing the entire paradigm upon which the global Internet is based. But if you do that you may just kill the goose that laid the golden egg because the commercial success of today's Internet is inextricably tangled with the pricing schemes used and those pricing schemes are in turn created by the network architecture. Aside from more draconian network monitoring and control schemes to provide contractually guaranteed service levels, we could just solve the problems by adding twice as much bandwidth as we need. But then.... nature abhors a vacuum... and the video-on-demand folks are sitting on the sidelines drooling with their tongues hanging out... Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-542-4130 http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com
Michael Dillon writes:
Give me one example of an ISP that will take responsibility for fixing a problem that is outside their control and is also outside the control of the companies with which they have contracted for service.
The *goal* or end-game strategy is not to have 'ISPs that will take responsibility ..... outside their control ...." . The work that needs to be done is to create a coopertive organization that creates QOS standards, metrics, etc. and establishes strategic and tactical goals for the 'profession as a whole'. This concept is similar to the American Medical Association or any organization that assumes responsibilty for the performance, standards and conduct of it's members. Like IPSPA.... (just made it up, thank you) the IP Service Providers of Assocation. Wouldn't than be nice.... :-) Little stickers on ISP WWW pages stating: Certified by IPSPA. Each member contributes $500 per year, standard membership and the money is used to fund all kind of nice development and coding efforts. IPSPA could contribute to the IETF and lobby congress and who knows what else. If anyone is interested, I'll create an IPSPA mailing list..... (done) IPSPA@ipspa.silkroad.com. We will set up a nice non-profit organization, put all IPSPA relation information, including the budget and expenditures on the net and meet at IETF in Dallas on the side. Everything above board, we will even draw up the corporate, non-profit charter on the e-mail list, working out the charter, ethics boards, etc. Anybody interested? IPSPA-request@ipspa.silkroad.com. If so, I'll register and pay for a new domain IPSPA.ORG. Tim -- +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Tim Bass | #include<campfire.h> | | Principal Network Systems Engineer | for(beer=100;beer>1;beer++){ | | The Silk Road Group, Ltd. | take_one_down(); | | | pass_it_around(); | | http://www.silkroad.com/ | } | | | back_to_work(); /*never reached */ | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
participants (3)
-
Michael Dillon -
Scott Bradner -
Tim Bass