cogent and level3 Issue with earnings

cogent level3 peering

[mojomike]

Not sure if this is the right location but everyone should have this information :

Level3 and Cogent : both transit carriers that web host have contracts with so your website has connectivity are at issues.

These issues have caused level3 to stop cogent packets from arriving to your website. this means that you might be seeing a downturn in traffic.

to resolve this issue you should host with a multipeering web host. I can not recall of any right now ( well I know of 1 or 2 but I rarely offer recommendations about web host and on this forum we are not aloud )

Mike

[blaze]

Anyone else get nicked by the internet divorce?

What a nightmare!

[edited by: jatar_k at 7:30 pm (utc) on Oct. 10, 2005]
[edit reason] removed specific mention [/edit]

[tedster]

Note that cooperation has been re-established at least for now.

On Friday afternoon, Cogent said Level 3 has restored all peering connections.

Level 3, in a statement, said it's done so in order to let Cogent customers make
alternative arrangements. "We will maintain this connection until 6:00 a.m. ET,
November 9, 2005," Level 3 wrote in a statement.

[eweek.com...]

[weeks]

Here are the highlights from the Wall Street Journal on October 7:

A dispute between two Internet companies has left a portion of Internet users unable to access certain Web sites and email services.

Level 3 Communications Inc., a network provider that serves as a backbone for the Internet, is blocking traffic sent by Cogent Communications Inc., an Internet service provider. The move has affected Time Warner Inc.'s RoadRunner Internet subscribers, among others.

The partial outage shows the vulnerability of the Internet, which serves as the main communications tool for businesses and consumers alike.

Since Wednesday, customers of both Cogent and Level 3 haven't been able to communicate with each other. For example, subscribers to Time Warner, which contracts with Level 3, have been unable to access commentator Matt Drudge's Web site, drudgereport.com, which is hosted by Cogent. Because of the problem, some subscribers mistakenly suspected Time Warner was censoring Web sites, officials said. "We're caught in the middle," says Mark Harrad, a Time Warner spokesman, who added that the company was working on alternate ways to route traffic.

According to Level 3 officials, the dispute stems from an agreement the two companies have to host Internet traffic for each other at no charge, a practice called peering. Kevin O'Hara, president and chief operating officer of Level 3, said Cogent was overloading his system with traffic out of proportion to the amount of traffic his company was sending to Cogent.

"The relationship with Cogent was no where near to equal," Mr. O'Hara said. "They were dumping traffic on our network."

According to Cogent, the dispute affects roughly 15% to 17% of the Internet.

Cogent Chief Executive Dave Schaeffer told Reuters that "The usability and value people get out of the Internet is highly dependent on its ability to be ubiquitous and affordable, and I think what Level 3 is attempting to do is undermine both of those core principles."