The Internet- You can’t get there from here.
A couple days ago I had a VERY frustrating day. I could not access my own website from my home computer. I could not get email through my domain’s email addy, except sporadically. I couldn’t ftp files up to my site. Why? Because of a feud.
Apparently the routers that allow the smaller networks to interface into the larger network called “the internet” are controlled by companies that don’t always have the best interests of internet users in mind. At the heart of the problem are financial agreements (or in this case it seems maybe the lack of one) between the different segments of the web, in this particular case between Level 3 and Cogent. Level 3 cut off Cogent’s access to Level 3 for much of October 5th.
One suggestion to “cure” the problem is to treat the internet as a utility and put the section in question, which is in the US and on the largest and oldest part of the web, under governmental control, possibly under the FCC, the same agency who has tried, and in certain cases succeeded, in censoring other US communications, a solution that horrifies me. Of course, the International community has its own ideas about the way traffic through the US routers should be handled.
I doubt UN governance would be any better than US governmental control. However, after seeing what happened with the electrical utility web in the US in the wake of deregulation and the Enron scandal, can government or UN regulation be worse than corporate greed and infighting?
Meanwhile, since I now know that my ISP is most likely only on Cogent’s net, I’m going to have to research how I can insulate myself from this particular feud in the future, since current negotiations have only guaranteed us uninterrupted peering through the beginning of November.
I have a feeling we’re in for a lot of “you can’t get there from here” over the next few months as this shakeout and chickenfight continues.
