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Is the Internet Shutting Out Independent Players?

Posted by Cliff on from the routing-table-roulette dept.

ikekrull asks: "After looking to see how I could set up my company's LAN to be multi-homed ? , I found that it would be next-to-impossible for me to do this. 'Providerless' IP addresses are no longer allocated to anybody in this part of the world (New Zealand) by APNIC ? , unless you meet requirements (financial and political) that are pretty much unmeetable by anyone but a large ISP. Does this put control of the entire internet further and further into the hands of large corporate players, and and is anyone particularly interested in changing this situation?"

"ISPs aren't advertizing routes for competing ISPs, and since IP blocks are heavily filtered upstream, this won't do much good anyway. The reasons for this are clear (Routing table growth was getting way out of hand), hence the introduction of CIDR ? , and the allocation of IPs to ISPs, with a resulting lockout on availability of routable IP space to individuals or smaller groups.

With the availabilty of IPv6, and the cost of RAM, I find it somewhat hard to believe that either IP address blocks are scarce, or that the size of routing tables are unmanageable any more. This might have been true with an 8MB Cisco 10 years ago, but surely it would be a negligible cost to put 1-2GB of RAM on even a reasonably budget router at todays prices.

Obviously, IPV6 isn't really here yet, but i would like to think that when (if) it arrives, we will see a more open routing system.

Is anybody working on returning some kind of equal standing to 'the little guys' when it comes to internet routing infrastructure, and how a more 'open' system could work in practice on tomorrow's (or today's) internet?"

4 of 357 comments (clear)

  1. You can buy multi-homed connections. by sulli · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    At least in the states - my employer (AT&T) offers multi-homed and backup connections at T1 speed and above. (Routing is via BGP4.) You need to accept IPs from one ISP or another, so they're not really "yours," but it still works. I presume Aussie ISPs do the same thing, but I may be wrong.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
    1. Re:You can buy multi-homed connections. by Xenex · · Score: 1, Flamebait
      New Zealand: Because Australia needs a Canada too.

      :P

  2. Spagetti Wilson and the Ancient Troll by bushboy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Give me a break - isn't this why 'virtual' hosting was introduced ?

    Next thing you'll be saying you want your own strip of highway to put outside your house, linking your ass to every asshole in history.

    --
    A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
  3. Re:You've got to pay to play by jhunsake · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    We (the US) can kill you. You (Eurotrash?) can't kill us. Thus, we can win any argument if its important enough to us. Follow the logic, or do we have to stuff a 15,000lb bomb up your ass?