Internet Wars - Internet Backbone Feud Shuts Down the Web
Had trouble accessing major parts of the Internet over the last few days? On Wednesday morning, October 5, 2005, Level 3 Communications cut off connections between their Internet backbone network and the Internet backbone network of their rival, Cogent Communications. Thousands of customers had web sites and email blocked for almost three days until the feud came to an end this afternoon, October 7, 2005, when Level 3 Communications restored normal service. Level 3 says that the restoral of service is just temporary, however. They say they will cut the connection again at 6 AM EST on November 9, 2005, unless Cogent Communications pays for the connection and use of Level 3's Internet backbone. Many people think of the Internet as some vast entity of its own, but it is actually made of many different networks that "internetwork" together. At the heart of the Internet are the networks of a number of very large Internet Service Providers (ISP's), such as Level 3 and Cogent, who tie together with "peering arrangements" to make up the "backbone" of the Internet. So what caused the feud? Apparently Level 3 Communications decided they are bigger than Cogent Communications - and that they could pressure Cogent into paying for their peering arrangement with Level 3! When Cogent refused, Level 3 cancelled the peering relationship. The cut prevented any Cogent or Level 3 customers from accessing anything hosted on the other network - and also blocked all traffic that would need to between these backbones, even if the traffic did not originate in either network. Individuals and businesses around the world were outraged by the move by Level 3 Communications, and there was word late Friday that the US Congress was even discussing what actions could be taken to prevent such future disputes from affecting Internet service. Read Net backbone outage fixed, for now at CNET News.com... Read Finding a solution to the ISP wars at ZDNet... Technorati tags: Internet Web
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