Reflections after a week

It’s been 1 week.  Since what you ask?  Since I took my first steps into a different world,  a world of providing information rather then acquiring it.  I must admit it’s been a humbling experience.  I’m referring of course to being a teacher, well a sorta teacher anyway.

Right off the bat, I will admit that being a subject matter expert in more than a few core infrastructure technologies, including Windows Server, does not make one ready to actually instruct others in the same.  After receiving all the materials from the previous instructor, and getting myself up to speed with what had been cover thus far, I thought I was ready to go.  I mean, Read chapters on stuff I already knew, write up new syllabus with what I expected, and  think of something of  a funny intro to break the ice.  Boy was I dead wrong!

Once I thought I had overcome the initial fear and stage fright, I went through it all again, nervousness, fear, excitement, nervousness, dread.  If there is a 5 stages model for dying, then I think this might be the 5 stages of day 1 teaching.  So as the time comes for my first class to start, I’m introduced by the previous instructor as he “says good-bye” to his students.  If I’m those students at that moment I’m thinking wtf is going on right?  I get up there, and start to do the only thing I can think of, introduce myself, and tell the students what gives me the right to be up there in front of them.  Then I have them introduce themselves to me, and finally hand out and go over my syllabus.  Now I’m out of ideas, all that careful planning, and I’ve now got nothing, and it’s only been 20 minutes, only 20 feakin’ minutes.  I ask the only thing that comes to mind, what are you guys confused about?  And the response I get is an overwhelming “everything!”  The first thing I think is oh crap!  Well, then we spend the rest of of the class starting over from the beginning, the first thing I hadn’t planned for, oops my bad.  I dig up chapter 1 and we’re off, up to chapter 3 until the end of class time, which actually came pretty fast after those first horrific 20 minutes.  Of course here I am up in front rattling off high level concepts and how to manipulate the OSI model to your advantage, and the single glaring question I received was “can you show us where the layers are in the OSI model.”  And well no I really couldn’t, the second thing I really hadn’t planned for, oops again.

This is where the humbling part comes into play, like I said being a SME in something doesn’t make you ready to teach it, and I spent the ride home realizing that I’d forgotten more about the OSI model and subnetting then my students knew.  Self-reflection is a concept that hadn’t really hit home for me until that moment, and I resolved to do better next class.  With that in mind I cracked open my old books on networking fundamentals and re-learned everything from what media and protocol meant to how to CIDR was deigned to make the Internet a better place.

Armed with that knowledge, I went back into class very much more sure of myself, and did well, just marginally better then the firs time, in my opinion.

After 1 week all I can say is being a gateway to expert knowledge on a subject for those who want it is a very interact position to be in, and a position that could cause some serious damage to people if handled incorrectly.  But hopefully, by the end of this semester we all will have learned something.

Indecision 2008

I Love watching election coverage!!  Nothing is more fun then watching how the major networks calculate the vote percentages!!  Saying that for example Obama has 50% of the vote and McCain has 49% with 11% of the total vote in, is actually saying that Obama has 5.50% and McCain has 5.49% (or something like that).  And then if that wasn’t enough, the major networks can’t agree even closely on the “actual” and by that I mean not actual percentages of the total vote distribution.  Lets be honest, I mean we all know where we THINK the election is heading, so why don’t we just watch real TV and then let the news bug us when the numbers are actually in and real.

Oh did you see the vein of Red running through the middle of the country- from the Dakota’s to Texas?  I don’t know if that’s how it always is, but I think that’s just interesting

On a personal note, as I live in Indiana, I seriously don’t understand what is taking us so long to get our votes reported.  I mean when I voted today, I had to wait for 20 minutes while three people had to realize they skipped the page in the voting machine manual that said plug the unit it, but… well, I was gonna say we can’t all be that incompetent in Indiana…. yeah I’m not so sure about that anymore.  I think Northwestern Indiana is the only sane part of the state, have you seen all that red?  Even though it seems Indiana went Obama, if we’re wealthy enough to even think McCain here, where was I when this happened?  Or is it just NW Indiana – is there some kind of secret to living in like BFE country Indiana – do they just hand you a bushel basket full of cash when you move in?

 

Seriously though, there is very little that might be more important then voting.  Either way this election goes – the turn out has just been amazing.  I think today, tonight we are seeing without question, that one of the most important elements of our country, that the founding fathers invisioned, is alive and well.

 

PS – I think it should be obvious by now the area in which I live and how I voted, and if you disagree with me, I really don’t care.  These are just my thoughts.

Sprint fires back, peering with Cogent Temporarily reconnected

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.

Update: Cogent v. Sprint

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!

Can’t Route to Sprint: Cogent gets Depeered AGAIN!

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

Cogent vs. Network Solutions

Well, it would seem that in the war between Cogent and Network solutions, Network Solutions is winning.  I’m sure most are aware of what is happening, there has been a DDos on Network Solutions from spoofed Cogent IP addresses in the 38.98.0.0/16, and in order to remedy the problem Network solutions has black holed that range!!  No problem you think, good idea, well it is unless you have one of those IP addresses that got black-holed!  The general response from Cogent has been “sit Tight we’re working on it!”  GREAT!  unless you have screaming users wondering why their mail isn’t getting delivered!!  You never really think about it, but Network Solutions does have a large customer base, even if it is just for DNS management.  So here comes the point of this post, in the great wisdom of many a network engineer better then myself, the solution has been (from the cogent side anyway) to re-number!  Change the range of IP addresses we’re giving you to something out the 38.98.0.0/16 network!  What a great solution, oh yeah no big deal, lets just change all of our MX and other public DNS services, our firewalls NAT tables, as well as the occasional remote user who got an IP address to connect in to rather than a DNS name.  Unfortunately since Network solutions seems to be wining this “war” I don’t know what choice we have, and to be honest, it SUCKS!!  Period!