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!