ACS and GCI: Neener neener neener (WAS: Re: KDE 3.5.3, IPv6, and CUPS)

From: James Zuelow <e5z8652@zuelow.net>
Date: Mon Jun 26 2006 - 18:19:14 AKDT

On Monday 26 June 2006 08:50, Leif Sawyer wrote:
> James Zuelow wrote:
> > [ snip ]
> > So is KDE using DNS to lookup localhost? Here's what I get
> > using the ACS DNS servers (GCI just times out on me, maybe
> > because the request is coming from the ACS netblock, or maybe
> > because the request has to go through the lower-48 to get to
> > GCI next door. Sigh. ACS and GCI still acting like children.)
> From a consumer point-of-view, you might make this generalization,
> because you just want 'things to work'.
>

Well, I are a consumer.

At home I am currently an ACS broadband customer, used to be a GCI broadband customer (the switch wasn't because of anything GCI did, it just happened for a variety of reasons). I still get bills in the mail from both, and all in all they're both OK companies. (They both have their bad moments, though!) This isn't really a burning issue for me, until I get told how expensive it is to implement.

In a work environment I have had to work around the lack of peering. Every so often something breaks in Seattle, and network traffic from a Juneau GCI cable modem address that is pointed at a Juneau ACS DSL address gets routed through San Jose or even Atlanta. I know, because I notice or someone complains about slow service so I do a traceroute. From a consumer point of view, it is dumb to have to worry about network issues in Seattle slowing down traffic that only has to go a couple of miles as the crow flies. Worse to subsidize the whole thing by buying connections to both networks to provide quality service to hometown connections on both networks. (And then spend staff time customizing individual user's settings based on their personal ISP choice!) That is money needlessly wasted on the consumer's end.

I am sure that either company could put together quite the spreadsheet showing how local peering would destroy the Alaska network infrastructure by bankrupting both ACS and GCI because it is cheaper to route traffic through Seattle instead of Anchorage, leaving us all with 28.8k long distance AOL dialup. I don't really believe it and will still readily resort to namecalling on this matter though. :)

> Your best bet, if you -really- want one, is to start one yourself. I'll
> leave it to you to figure out how to pay for it.
>

Didn't someone up in Anchorage accidentally do exactly this a few years back? Cable modem to DSL bridge that slowed everything down because it was suddenly the shortest route between the two networks?
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Received on Mon Jun 26 18:19:40 2006

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