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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Lazy network operators
On Sat, 10 Apr 2004, Jeff Workman wrote: > --On Saturday, April 10, 2004 8:30 PM -0700 Dan Hollis <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > exodus for example had a hands off policy, dont do a single thing until > > law enforcement arrives with a search warrant. > > While this might be a PITA for everybody, I don't see why everybody wants > to chastise NSPs for this practice, especially NSPs that are/were telcos. > Isn't this more or less the way telcos have dealt with abuse issues for > decades? > > I used to work for a very small (~10k dialup customer) ISP, and at the time > our abuse policy was "if somebody complains, and you can find *something* > in the logs, then lock the account." Then I went to work for a so-called > "Tier-1" and learned in short order that this policy does not scale, > especially when abusive customers with DS3s are waving around fully loaded > lawyers. > The problem with your argument is very much an apples and oranges comparison. Having spend the first five years of my network career at a "ma and pa" that then got gobbled by Verio, and then the last five plus years at a startup Telco/ISP, I can tell you, you see very different issues. 1> Telcos don't have ISP style AUPs, basically unless it's illegal, you can do it on a phone without the carrier getting involved. 2> Telcos don't have the content variety that ISPs do. You can't (practically) bring down a Class 5 switch, the SS7 network, etc with the actions of one customer. 3> A single phoneset cannot be used to contact 50 million people in a matter of hours to sell them viagra or other stiffy pills. 4> A phoneset cannot be used to hijack or damage another phoneset on the PSTN. There's no such thing as a zombie telephone. PBXs might be hijackable, but not a home phone. 5> The other Telcos don't get pissed when you or your customers use/abuse their resources, they send bills. and the list goes on and one. While both the Telco and ISP are communications services, they are completely different beasts in the abuse department (as well as support, provisioning, billing, etc) If your well lawyered customers complains, wave the AUP at them, if your AUP doesn't allow you to disconnect customers who imperil your network and the Internet at large, rewrite it. Remember that getting cut off by your upstream is more painful than dealing with a PITA customer. Remember that the Internet started out as a community, and in our little neck of the woods (NSP network engineering/operations) it still is, and nobody likes a (BGP) neighbor who doesn't care about the others in his neighborhood. As an ISP/NSP/whatever acronym they think up next, your customers are your responsibility, and you, like a good bartender, need to be able to let your customers know when they're a nusance. -S -- Scott Call Router Geek, ATGi, home of $6.95 Prime Rib I make the world a better place, I boycott Wal-Mart VoIP incoming: +1 360-382-1814
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