Cogent is an advertising agency that has been around since the 1930s. So they’ve seen recessions come and go. It was interesting, then, to see their current creative director Richard Payne’s take on what it takes to apply creativity successfully these days.

He talks a lot of sense and echoes my own views. Great ideas should be able to work across media and be independent of the size of the budget. Just as importantly, creatives should always remember what their role is: to use their creative skills to sell the client’s products and services. Awards and gongs are nice and glittery, but they’re not the aim of the job. If you want your creative genius to be recognised for itself, write a book, make a film, make a painting, carve a statue or create a play.

It will be interesting, in this context, to see what Manchester-based BJL do with their recently announced Art in Advertising exhibition, which is due to open at The Lowry gallery in Salford Quays on 25th January 2010.

Art in Advertising photo from The Lowry website

While going through Spamhaus SBLs, I found this updated /23 under RIPE. It would seem that most times when Spamhaus is unsure of the exact ownership of a netblock or the downstream has a small number of IPs assigned to it, the volunteers will place it under the regional registry (RIR). I researched the IP range: 194.8.74.0/23 and found it listed under AS44557 DRAGONARA. Googling revealed this recent blog post. Tha nullroute. me author noticed in late July 2009 a lot of comment spam coming from this netblock.

Below in the Spamhaus SBL, I am referencing the netblock info and some of the nameserver information that Spamhaus discovered within the IP ranges.

Spamhaus SBL76200

Ref: SBL76200

194.8.74.0/23 is listed on the Spamhaus Block List (SBL)

02-Sep-2009 12:26 GMT | SR04

Spamming and now seems this place is involved in other fraud

inetnum: 194.8.74.0 – 194.8.75.255
netname: DRAGONARA-NET
descr: Dragonara Alliance Ltd
country: GB
org: ORG-DRAG1-RIPE
admin-c: AGAV2-RIPE
tech-c: AGAV2-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PI
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-PI-MNT
mnt-by: DRAGONARA-MNT
mnt-lower: RIPE-NCC-HM-PI-MNT
mnt-routes: DRAGONARA-MNT
mnt-domains: DRAGONARA-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-DRAG1-RIPE
org-name: Dragonara Alliance Ltd
org-type: OTHER
address: Geneva Place, Waterfront Drive,
P. O. Box 3469, Road Town, Tortola,
British Virgin Islands
mnt-ref: DRAGONARA-MNT
mnt-by: DRAGONARA-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: Andrey Gavrilog
address: Geneva Place, Waterfront Drive,
P. O. Box 3469, Road Town, Tortola,
British Virgin Islands
mnt-by: DRAGONARA-MNT
abuse-mailbox: abuse@dragonara.net
phone: +41 435.001.009
nic-hdl: AGAV2-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to ‘194.8.74.0/23AS44557′

route: 194.8.74.0/23
descr: Dragonara Alliance
origin: AS44557
mnt-by: DRAGONARA-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

[...]

194.8.75.115
194.8.74.30

NS1.CCTHETUNECOOKIE.COM
NS1.CCTHETUNETOWN.COM
NS1.CCWEIGHTFEELCONCERT.COM
NS1.CCTHESPEEDDATE.COM
NS1.CCTHETHOUGHTSITE.COM
NS1.CCTHOUGHTSITE.COM
NS1.CCTOPMUSICCENTRAL.COM
NS1.NSMELEONDOMEN.COM
NS1.CCBESTBABYMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCBESTJAZZMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCSUPERGUITARCHORDS.COM
NS1.CCTHETHOUGHTDOMAIN.COM
NS1.CCBESTGUITARDIRECT.COM
NS1.CCNEWTUNESITE.COM
NS1.CCONLINESPEEDDIRECT.COM
NS1.CCONLINESPEEDPAY.COM
NS1.CCNEWMUSICSPIN.COM
NS1.CCABSTRACTDOMAINNAME.COM
NS1.CCSUPERSPEEDTEST.COM
NS1.CCTOPDRAWMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCYOUNGTUNE.COM
NS1.CCYOURCONCEPTSITE.COM
NS1.CCYOURGUITARCHORD.COM
NS1.CCBESTBETMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCTOPINTERNETMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCYOURGUITARTAB.COM
NS1.CCYOURSEEM.COM
NS1.CCYOURSPEEDUNDER.COM
NS1.CCYOURSPEEDWAI.COM
NS1.CCYOURTUNECITY.COM
NS1.CCNEWMUSICKOREA.COM
NS1.CCNEWMUSICLINE.COM
NS1.CCNEWMUSICSTREAM.COM
NS1.CCNEWTUNEWORLD.COM
NS1.CCONLINEHOMERATE.COM
NS1.CCONLINERATESOURCE.COM
NS1.CCONLINESPEEDSITE.COM
NS1.CCONLINESPEEDWORLD.COM
NS1.CCPHOTOLOOKGIG.COM
NS1.CCLATESTTUNE.COM
NS1.CCLOOKANDSHOW.COM
NS1.CCWEBSPEEDNOW.COM
NS1.CCTHEGUITARMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCTOPMOBILEMUSIC.COM
NS1.CCWEBSPEEDO.COM
NS1.CCBESTGUITARTABLATURE.COM
NS1.CCAVAILABLESPEED.COM
NS1.CCATWEBSPEED.COM
NS1.CCBESTCONCERTTOUR.COM
NS1.CCBESTGUITARWORLD.COM

NS2.CCBESTGUITARDIRECT.COM
NS2.CCBESTGUITARWORLD.COM
NS2.CCTHETHOUGHTSITE.COM
NS2.CCPHOTOLOOKGIG.COM
NS2.CCTOPDRAWMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCYOURSPEEDUNDER.COM
NS2.CCNEWTUNEWORLD.COM
NS2.CCONLINERATESOURCE.COM
NS2.CCONLINESPEEDPAY.COM
NS2.CCONLINESPEEDSITE.COM
NS2.CCBESTBABYMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCAVAILABLESPEED.COM
NS2.CCBESTCONCERTTOUR.COM
NS2.CCTHESPEEDDATE.COM
NS2.CCSUPERSPEEDTEST.COM
NS2.CCTHEGUITARMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCLATESTTUNE.COM
NS2.CCTHETUNECOOKIE.COM
NS2.CCTHETUNETOWN.COM
NS2.CCTHOUGHTSITE.COM
NS2.CCYOURGUITARTAB.COM
NS2.CCYOURTUNECITY.COM
NS2.CCBESTBETMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCBESTJAZZMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCWEBSPEEDNOW.COM
NS2.CCWEBSPEEDO.COM
NS2.CCYOURSEEM.COM
NS2.CCONLINEHOMERATE.COM
NS2.CCTOPMOBILEMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCYOURCONCEPTSITE.COM
NS2.CCNEWMUSICSTREAM.COM
NS2.CCNEWTUNESITE.COM
NS2.CCNEWMUSICKOREA.COM
NS2.CCONLINESPEEDWORLD.COM
NS2.CCTHETHOUGHTDOMAIN.COM
NS2.CCSUPERGUITARCHORDS.COM
NS2.CCYOUNGTUNE.COM
NS2.CCTOPINTERNETMUSIC.COM
NS2.CCYOURSPEEDWAI.COM
NS2.CCTOPMUSICCENTRAL.COM
NS2.CCWEIGHTFEELCONCERT.COM
NS2.CCYOURGUITARCHORD.COM
NS2.CCLOOKANDSHOW.COM
NS2.CCABSTRACTDOMAINNAME.COM
NS2.CCBESTGUITARTABLATURE.COM
NS2.CCATWEBSPEED.COM
NS2.CCONLINESPEEDDIRECT.COM
NS2.CCNEWMUSICLINE.COM
NS2.CCNEWMUSICSPIN.COM

[...]

According to the nullroute blog, the IP ranges of AS44557 are: 91.205.40.0/22 & 194.8.74.0/23

At the time of this post, Spamhaus is blocking 512 IPs under the /23. Also, this host (AS44557 / DRAGONARA ) appears to be unresponsive to abuse complaints. According to FixedOrbit, this host has 1534 IP addresses and its upstream is Cogent (AS174).

Here are some pictures of my new office in Plainfield, IN.

Sitting at Red Robin at my new office located in Plainfield, IN. Looks like some good burgers. We’ll see…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

• Reward yourself. Even for small successes, celebrate achieving your goals. Promise yourself a reward for completing each task or finishing the total job. Then keep your promise to yourself and indulge in your reward. Doing so will help you maintain the necessary balance in life between work and play.
• Renewal is the process that strengthens us and gives us increased personal power to move up the spiral of continuous improvement-physically, socially/emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
• Renewal is a gift we give ourselves, not an imposition.
• Remember to schedule time NOT to work! Create boundaries. Without the 9-to-5 structure, its easy to work 24/7, but not very fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.” -Nikki Giovanni

I think the person who decided that ‘Logical Reasoning’ should be a required class for Business Majors should be made to sit through the class themselves. Then they can tell me I don’t already know this crap and I still have to take the class.

In which case, they should be shot.

There isn’t a single logical thing about my logic class. The whole thing is ridiculous. It’s freaking common sense! And they treat it like it’s some big deal that’s sooo hard.

Makes me want to throw something.

Valid or invalid. Sound or unsound. But invalid can’t be sound. Only valid can be sound or unsound.

Then strong or weak. Cogent or not cogent. But weak can’t be cogent. It’s always uncogent if it’s weak. It’s only strong that can be cogent or not cogent.

Here’s the kicker– if it’s valid, it can’t be strong or weak.

Say what?

Why can’t it be valid (100 percent true) and still have a strong or weak truth content?

Yeah, only invalid can be strong or weak, even though invalid always means unsound.

And then strong can be cogent or uncogent, but weak can only be uncogent.

The whole thing’s messed up.

Insanity.

Why can’t we just go with true/false and keep it simple? I like simple. Simple works for me.

So why do they have to try and make a simple true or false conclusion so complex?

I really want to pummel whoever came up with this class in the first place. Make he and they guy who decided it should be a required course sit through it together.

I’m sure they’d have loads of fun, just like all the people who have to take it.

CIE Train

Well, it’s another new year, another set of fare hikes for CIE. Everything’s going up, as usual: Bus, train and Luas users are all going to have to cough up that little bit extra for the luxury of these public services. Of course, this is nothing new – it’s been happening every single new year for at least the last decade. It’s as regular as the services themselves are not.

During the Celtic Tiger years, the excuse used by CIE for putting up prices was rising fuel costs, the added pressure on services to cater for immigrant commuter workers to the country, etc etc. Well, we can see now that those excuses were a load of rubbish – the workers are leaving Ireland in droves, fuel costs are at their lowest in years, and yet the fares still make their annual leap. Not only that, but many routes are going to have their services reduced, and some will be cut altogether.

This time, the explanation is that the CIE have made massive operating losses in the last year, due to a drop in demand for services.

So, let’s be clear: This company’s reaction to making operating losses is to increase fares. Now, I’m no business acolyte, but I am familiar with the concept of common sense. And there is no common sense in CIE’s explanation. It goes against even the most basic rules of commercial interaction. You attract customers by lowering the cost to them, right? But no, this insular, state-mollycoddled service can keep putting up  fares while issuing statements that defy logic outright. Why? Because they have a monopoly. Because so many people have no choice but to use them. (And like all good monopolies, CIE hate criticism. A few years back, I wrote an article for a college magazine that lambasted their quality of service. CIE promptly contacted the college’s students union and informed them that if they continued publishing this type of disparagement, measures would have to be taken. Legal action was not directly threatened, but the state of affairs was made very clear.)

CIE Logo

It’s actually cheaper now to run a small car on a week to week basis than it is to use the bus regularly. Certainly, for longer trips, there is no comparison. The fact is that in a world suffering an environmental crisis, where almost every other first-world nation is actively encouraging its citizens to get out of the car and use public transport, Ireland is swimming furiously against the tide. Increased fares, less routes and no improvement on what is, let’s be honest, a shite service…. what are they playing at? Our Government seems determined to put more people on the already-congested roads.

Also, despite CIE’s claims that they are hemorrhaging customers, we still see comments and headlines like these:

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/cie-fare-hikes-cant-be-justified-1595255.html

or

http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2008/sep/28/irish-rail-enough-empty-trains-to-get-to-the-moon/

in which we see a glimpse of the astonishingly wasteful practices of the company. When you read reports that say “…almost 20% of the empty mileage is attributable to Iarnród Éireann’s refusal to decentralise drivers to commuter centres…”, it’s difficult to feel sympathy for the huge losses that they manage to incur. These people have no idea how to run a streamlined business, and have no incentive to learn, either. Why should they? They know that no matter how much they run the company into debt (and the national transport infrastructure into the ground) that they will be bailed out in the new year. The commuter will pay the price, simply because they have to. No heads will roll, no individual will be held accountable, and no competition will be allowed to show them up for the shambles they are.

And all of this is occurring in the most difficult economic climate the country has seen in decades, where people are struggling to even find work to pay off their debts, and in which Fianna Fail responded to a national financial crisis by rolling out a Sheriff-Of-Nottingham budget that specifically targeted the middle classes, students and the elderly – the people least likely to fight back. But these would-be-victims surprised the whole country by organising their collective anger and making a difference. Specifically, the ageing population of the country took to the streets in their droves because of the withdrawal of free medical cards. Rarely have I felt more proud to be Irish than when I read reports of government ministers being shouted down by OAPs who had had enough and were not going to take it anymore. Fianna Fail got very scared and made budget backtracks faster than anyone had anticipated.

OAP Protests

But that was a rare high point in a situation that has seen Fianna Fail try to claw money back from the most vulnerable; the very money that the government wasted in the first place and continues to waste. Instead of blatant theft, the government has simply adopted a strategy of “testing the waters”. They see how far they can go before people freak out and protest. And yes, the OAPs and students put up a fight, but look at what wasn’t protested or repealed: A new ‘levy’ of between 1 and 2% on all incomes. Increased air travel tax, now a huge 10 Euros per flight (over 300km).  Alcohol tax is up there with the highest in Europe, and general VAT rates went up. So, when huge crowds of Irish shoppers crossed the border to the North to do their shopping with the much fairer UK rates, they were rebuked by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who said:

“When you shop in Northern Ireland, you’re paying Her Majesty’s taxes, you’re not paying taxes to the state that you live in.”

That’s right, folks – it’s your patriotic duty to get robbed. Forget about the myriad bank executives who receive little more than a slap on the wrist for deeply irresponsible – and often, illegal – financial activities. Forget the black hole of public funding that is the Health Service Executive. Forget the fact that Hoffa-esque unions have held this country to ransom for decades, and that noone in government has the guts to do a thing about it. Forget all that, because once you cross the border to actually get value for your money, you become a veritable dissident.

Funnily enough, “patriotic duty” was also the weak reasoning behind Fianna Fail’s campaign to get the Lisbon Treaty passed. Rather than present any cogent arguments, they told the country that it was our civic obligation to (a) not ask questions and (b) tick the ‘yes’ box. This “just shut up and do it” attitude extended to the point where Cowen admitted that he had not read the entire text of the Treaty.

And yet, in this catalogue of monumentally selfish and cavalier actions, the worst still seems to me the CIE price hike. Why? Because it targets the people who have no choice. Because CIE can’t come up with a single good excuse for their actions. Because every other country in Europe has a transport system that is at least somewhat affordable and dependable. Because, as someone told me the other day, the ticket machine in Cork Bus Station does not accept 50 Euro notes – and often, neither do the drivers. Because it’s an insult those of us who do our bit for the environment. Because it exemplifies the quagmire of bureaucracy and non-responsibility that has helped send this country into a recession. Because this shambles of a company, this paradigm of wastefulness and arrogance, continues to exist only because it exploits the people who have no choice but to use it. Worst, because it seems the most like a  slap in the face.

How can a government expect the citizens of a country to do anything for them in the name of ‘Patriotic Duty’ when there is so little patriotism being shown by the government themselves?

f

Monday Update: Over the weekend repair crews were dispatched for all three cables. Engineers arrived at the SEA-ME-WE3 and SEA-ME-WE4 cables on Sunday. India, Singapore, and about 80 percent of Egypt (according to the Egyptian government) regained internet service. Reliance said it expects the FLAG cable break to be repaired this week. The cause of the cuts remains unclear.

Update: Research firm TeleGeography emailed us that three international submarine cables in the Mediterranean Sea were damaged today, causing disruptions to internet and phone traffic in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and all of the Gulf states. TeleGeography pinpoints the faults  between Tunisia and Italy, and claims the damaged cables are the FLAG Europe-Asia cable, operated by Reliance Globalcom, and two consortium cables, SeaMeWe-3 and SeaMeWe-4 owned jointly by several telecommunications companies. From the TeleGeography statement:

The current series of faults is reminiscent of the submarine cable faults that occurred in January 2008. Today’s events have the potential to create worse disruptions: while the January 2008 accidents broke two of the three cables connecting Europe with Asia via the Middle East, Friday’s cable failures have caused faults on all three. France Telecom projects that service on all cables will be restored by December 31. Until then, many carriers in the Middle East and South Asia will need to route their European traffic around the globe, through South East Asia and across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

It’s unknown if the Malta cable problems are related to these cuts, perhaps from a weather or seismic event. However in the online world the cuts are certainly related in how they will make it that much slower or impossible for users to connect around the world. (Malta cable cut report published earlier follows.)

In a reminder of both the frailty and the flexibility of the web, the Times of Malta is reporting that last night, a submarine cable delivering traffic to subscribers of GO’s broadband service experienced a “fault.” Thousands of Maltese lost their web connections.  Combine Malta’s experience with the earlier epidemic of a few undersea cables getting cut over a period of days, and a fight by Sprint and Cogent in the U.S. over peering agreements that cut off the web for some users, and it becomes clear that we should consider the web not only as physical infrastructure, but also held together by political and economic agreements.

It’s like an information superhighway, but also a like series of treaties that allow trade to various points of the globe. In Malta’s case, an agreement with Vodafone to share its cable kept the physical infrastructure from staying out. But as the Sprint/Cogent peering fight proved, when those agreements fail, the web is vulnerable in a way roads are not.

Este lío entre Sprint-Nextel y Cogent sólo ha servido para confirmar una cosa: Readyhosting (el lugar donde Tecnetico.com está “hosted”) ya dejó de dar buen servicio.

Esta compañía ha sido nuestro “web host” por los pasados 7 años, y con una que otra excepción, el servicio ha sido bastante bueno. Últimamente hubo varios problemas que finalmente se resolvieron. Pero este lío de Sprint-Nextel y Cogent (llevándose “enredado” a Readyhosting) de veras que no tiene justificación.

Así que he decido “mudar” a Tecnetico.com a otro webhost. Si alguno de ustedes tiene alguna recomendación que hacer, será más que bienvenida. ☺

Here check out this link: https://www.sprint.net/cogent.php

But let me give you the run down anyway.  Sprint says they terminated all connections to cogent (there were 10 total I guess) on Oct. 30th after repeated unpaid collection attempts from Sprint for network access from Cogent.  They then temporarily reconnected Cogent on Nov. 2nd.  However there is a lawsuit pending, and Sprint will re-disconnect them should things get worse (aka Cogent continues not to pay)

I guess Cogent isn’t blameless here, but it does show that the more “traditional” carriers can’t just pull the plug on Cogent without serious customer base repercussions.

Alright, I’ve been a bit slow on blogging, so some issues I’ve wanted to rant about but haven’t have built up, so this blog will be on a few different topics.

Firstly, Sprint threw a hissy-fit and completely disconnected its network connection with Cogent. This was only reported on tech sites, and got no significant attention, but this was a huge story.

Cogent is a Tier 1 network, which means if you don’t connect to it, you are disconnecting from an entire segment of the Internet. And guess what, so is Sprint, so Cogent couldn’t then connect with Sprint, meaning Sprint thereby screws Cogent customers in the process. Not only did they do something that ought to be in violation of contracts with their customers, it’s against the peering agreement between the customers, and against the Cogent customers contracts as well. Oh, and guess what, there are only 14 Tier 1 networks, and the rest have to pay to go through the lines of Tier 1 networks. If a Tier 2 network is then paying to connect through Cogent, well, you can work that out yourself (though they can work around if they’re paying for transit through enough additional networks).

For once, could every single tech corporation, and especially telecommunications companies stop screwing the consumer? The Internet is one of the greatest achievements in history, marking the ultimate source of knowledge for a species that thrives on the extension of its own ingenuity, and in one fell swoop, Sprint threatens to kill that.

Fortunately for the time-being, the networks will reconnect.

Secondly, there’s this story: Christians pray to golden bull on Wall Street.

I don’t even know what to say with this one. That something so obscure in concept plays out in direct contradictions to the famous forbidding of that exact obscure concept, what do you even say? You’re part of a religion oft accused of not following its own tenats or even reading its own holy book, and you go and pull this.

This is as about as speechless as I can say I’ve been.

Lastly, the Atheist Community of Austin (who sponsors the web-famous Atheist Experience call-in show), has released its Austin voters’ guide, which asked as candidates to answer a series of questions from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Naturally there are various questions about the separation of church and state and religion in schools where you’d see religious bias show through not surprisingly so. However, one question genuinely surprised me for the worse,

20. Parents who, on account of religion, prevent their children from receiving life-saving medical treatment should not be immune from prosecution or from loss of custody of their children.

This question inexplicably was split very evenly across the board. You kill your child and there are a significant portion of the electorate who thinks that’s just fine. Even Ralph Nader went for “Unsure.” Are you kidding me? Are you out of your damned mind?!

How can anyone of any faith, gender, nationality, HUMANITY not recognize this inarguable? You’re not going to suggest that a parent whose child died of their gross negligence shouldn’t lose custody of their other children? If the parent had gotten drunk and beaten their child to death, would you have the same answer?

There are only two possibilities for anyone who did not choose to Strongly Agree with question 20 on that guide:
1 – They misread
2 – They’re mentally unfit to hold office

And no, I don’t consider that a false dichotemy.

[qi:046] It looks like the Sprint (s S) and Cogent (s CCOI) networks are back talking to each other — at least temporarily. After the two companies severed networks on Oct. 30, there has been wide spread criticism of the severing of the networks. According to some sources, the disconnection between two networks caused problems for universities and many U.S. government agencies that are customers of Sprint. In an update on its web site, Sprint announced that it was reconnecting the networks as an interim solution.

Sprint initiated a temporary reconnection to the Cogent network on Sunday, November 2nd so that customers would have temporary access while longer-term alternate and permanent access options are explored. We emphasize that this reconnection is temporary only, as the core issues in this dispute have not changed. Cogent was notified in advance of the November 2nd reconnection; therefore, any access disruptions occurring during this temporary period are the sole result of a negative reaction instigated by Cogent against the customers of both parties.

Earlier this week when I spoke to Dave Schaffer, CEO of Cogent Communications, he pointed out that Sprint was a tiny fraction of the traffic coming to Cogent network, and the dispute was affecting customers who are single-homed to only the Sprint network, especially those trying to access the Internet from Sprint’s mobile devices.

Bueno, aquí van el inventario de “situaciones”:

1. Estamos en medio de una batalla legal que ha dificultado que pueda actualizar a Tecnetico.com- la compañía donde Tecnetico.com reside (“hosted”) utiliza la red de un mayorista de acceso a internet llamado Cogent. Es el servicio que provee esta compañía que hace que Tecnetico.com pueda accederse en la internet. Esta empresa lleva litigando con Sprint-Nextel (que de por sí también es un mayorista) por algo que se llama “peering”, que significa que ambas tienen un acuerdo para que ambas redes puedan comunicarse entre sí (recuerden que la internet es una “red de redes”) en igualdad de condiciones si que medie un pago.
   El jueves por la tarde, Sprint-Nextel decidió “cortar el cable” para así interrumpir la comunicación entre su red y la de Cogent, dejando a decenas de miles de personas alrededor del mundo sin comunicación. Esto obedece, según Sprint-Nextel, a que Cogent no cumplió con unos acuerdos vigentes durante la litigación. Aquí tienes el link al comunicado de prensa de Cogent sobre este asunto.

   ¿Qué tiene que ver esto con Tecnetico? Bueno, lo que pasa es que nuestro proveedor de acceso a internet, Aeronet Wireless, usa la red de Sprint para conectarnos a internet. De igual forma, mi teléfono y mi tarjeta para la PC también son de Sprint. Debido a que nada en la red de Sprint-Nextel (Aeronet Wireless, y por ende, nosotros) puede conectarse a nada que esté en la red de Cogent (nuestro “web host”, y por ende, Tecnetico.com), “estamos fritos”. Aclaro que esto no tiene nada que ver con el rediseño. Sólo se refiere a nuestra capacidad y necesidad de acceder a Tecnetico.com para actualizarlo con contenido nuevo.

   Eso explica el porqué algunos de ustedes pueden ver Tecnetico.com y otros no. Me comuniqué con Sprint-Nextel para tratar de tener una idea de a cuantas personas en Puerto Rico están siendo afectadas, pero todavía no he tenido contestación.

   Aunque la compañía de “hosting” de Tecnetico.com está implantando medidas para utilizar alguna otra forma de conectar Tecnetico.com que permita que clientes de Sprint-Nextel puedan tener acceso, estoy evaluando formas para evitar que esto vuelva a suceder. De hecho, el foro en el post que les avisó de esta entrada en el blog lo tuve que hacer desde un iPhone. ¿Por qué pude? Porque AT&T (¡por supuesto!) no utiliza la red de Sprint para conectar a sus usuarios a la internet, y por ende, no le afecta.

   Mientras tanto, hoy sábado estaré en la búsqueda de algún lugar que me ofrezca internet (que no sea por Sprint) y en el que pueda trabajar con comodidad para no seguir atrasando varias actualizaciones que hay que hacerle a Tecnetico.

2. El clima económico “nos aguó” el rediseño – esto sí que me duele decirlo. He tenido que tomar la difícil decisión de, una vez más, posponer el rediseño de Tecnetico.com.Esta semana nos reunimos con la empresa que nos estaba ayudando en estos menesteres para discutir el presupuesto. Simplemente es demasiado, über demasiado, para lo que en estos momentos podemos pagar.Tal vez “Omar” no nos afectó. Pero el clima económico y otros factores a nivel mundial han hecho imposible que llevemos a cabo unas iniciativas que nos hubiesen provisto del capital necesario para poder pagar este rediseño.

   Tanto nosotros como miles de empresas que dependen de publicidad están tenido obligatoriamente que entrar en un modo de operación para sobrevivir hasta que podamos tener una idea de qué magnitud y cuanto tiempo durará esta situación económica mundial.

Todo esto hace que el existir sea difícil, pero no imposible.

Tecnetico.com ha logrado sobrevivir 6 años llenos de diversas situaciones, y aún estamos aquí. Perseverancia ante las situaciones. Esa es la clave.

This could last a while!  I’m not kidding, the two are fighting it out in court.  So Cogent thinks Sprint is in violation of a free peering agreement.  Internet peering agreements are established between carriers to allow the passing of traffic between networks, usually based on a balanced level of traffic flow between networks, and usually for free, but not always.  Anyway, the two of them took the matter to court and before a decision could be reached Sprint decided to “pull the plug” on peering to Cogent.  This effectively segregates the Internet and prevents some people (and businesses) from exchanging information on the Internet, which is really scary if you work in tech and you or your company depend on Cogent, or Sprint for that matter.

of course, I’m not too sure if we can just hold Cogent blameless at this point.  This isn’t the first time Cogent has had peering issues with other carriers.  Even this year they just had an issue with Network Solutions, and before that Level 3 and a number of other carriers.  So to be fair we really need to ask, what did Cogent do to precipitate this problem, if anything?  The other side of this same argument is that the major carriers need to wake up and realize that they can’t just do this to Cogent anymore, as their customer base is growing, and Cogent is carrying more Internet traffic then ever before, that customer base won’t tolerate it, I mean I know I won’t.

Until the dispute is resolved, Cogent is offering anyone effected something like a free 100mbps pipe, assuming Cogent has service where you live or work, or so I’ve read / been told.

In the end, what do you do until they get it sorted out?  Well, like I said below, backup bandwidth is really the only thing to do, usually from a Tier 1 in your area.  Of course some people will disagree with me, but to that I say, when was the last time someone like AT&T got depeered from anyone?  Just saying.

On a personal note, in Chicago especially, if you use Wide Open West, it would seem, like I said below, that they use Sprint primarily as their provider and now from my home, I cannot get to my remote access options at the office.  I did call in on the matter, and I was told, and I quote, “Thank you for bringing it to our attention, we were not aware of it, the other calls we’ve been getting now make sense, and it’s in the hands of our engineers now.”  FAIL on their part – generally I would tend to notice when a major part of the Internet is no longer available to me, but hey what do I know?

*** Update *** It looks now like Cogent is routing around Sprint!!! – Using Either XO or AT&T

Finally, I mean it sure took them long enough to get it done, but here’s the proof:

Traceroute before:

Tracing route to 38.98.151.130 over a maximum of 30 hops

1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.2.1
2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
3     8 ms     9 ms     9 ms  172.31.17.238
4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
5  sl-crs2-chi-0-2-5-1.sprintlink.net [144.232.5.44]  reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

Traceroute after to XO:

Tracing route to 38.98.151.130 over a maximum of 30 hops:

1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.2.1
2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
3    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  172.31.17.238
4    10 ms     9 ms     9 ms  207.88.184.45.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.184.45]
5    11 ms     9 ms     9 ms  207.88.84.213.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.84.213]
6    12 ms     9 ms     9 ms  gi2-32.mpd01.ord03.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.12.229]
7    11 ms    12 ms    25 ms  vl3489.mpd01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.17]
8     9 ms    12 ms     9 ms  gi12-0-0.core01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.1.97]
9    11 ms    12 ms    12 ms  vl3600.na01.b000490-0.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [38.20.37.102]
10    10 ms    12 ms    12 ms  demarc.cogentco.com [38.98.151.130]

Trace complete.

Traceroute after to AT&T:

Tracing route to 64.233.207.13 over a maximum of 30 hops:

1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  172.21.65.254
2     *        *       <1 ms  38.98.172.97
3    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  66.250.10.133
4    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  154.54.1.98
5     1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  154.54.5.18
6    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  154.54.3.241
7     1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.205.33.193
8     2 ms     1 ms     1 ms  12.122.132.10
9     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  12.122.17.230
10     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  12.123.5.157
11     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  12.118.186.18
12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

Of course it dies because WideOpenWest doesn’t resopond to ping, but their site is now available to me!!

Thank to those who proivded me the traceroutes, you know who you are!

Well, right now, it would seem that NANOG is saying, and my own experience through my ISP at home, is confirming that Cogent is having routing issues to Sprint; possibly other carriers as well. The most likely source of that issue: Cogent got de-peered, from another high tier Internet carrier AGAIN! Oh Happy Day for all us who depend on Cogent for our various business needs. My advice right now: if you have Cogent, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest teir 1 carrier and buy some backup bandwidth!

Update:  It would seem this whole thing is due to a negotiation breakdown between the two parties, and Sprint decided to pull the plug as it were.  If you don’t believe me, check it out here (Well, unless you use cogent): http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/10/30/cogent-and-sprint-break-the-internet

Sure it’s not like back in the early 2000s, when those crooks from Enron were driving the prices of bandwidth down into the ground, but even today prices on Internet bandwidth continue to fall. If you are a consumer, however, there’s a good chance you’re wondering what I’m talking about — after all, broadband service providers like Comcast and Time Warner are talking about putting the meter on the bandwidth they serve up to residential subscribers.

What I’m talking about is wholesale Internet bandwidth that is sold to Internet services providers (ISPs) and content companies like Yahoo and Google. This is called IP Transit and it is sold at a rate of “per megabit per second per month” and often requires a monthly bandwidth commitment. Cogent Communications, Level 3 Communications, Tata Communications, Global Crossing and AT&T are some of the more well-known IP Transit providers.

Today research firm Telegeography came out with a report that shows the price of wholesale Internet access (IP transit), while varied around the globe, are still in decline. Here are some facts.

• GigE port prices in major U.S. cities fell 30-40 percent between Q2 2007 and Q2 2008. Median monthly IP transit prices for 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) ports in major U.S. and European cities ranged from $10-$14 per Mbps in Q2 2008.
• GigE port prices in Latin American cities declined a more modest 15-20 percent for the same period. Median GigE port prices range from $73 per month in Buenos Aires to $86 per month in Santiago.
• Prices for GigE ports in major Asian cities in Q2 2008 ranged from $30 per Mbps month in Seoul to $45 per Mbps per month in Tokyo, higher than the U.S. or Europe. The price declines were around 30 percent.