Thread: LINX, Peering, POPing etc..

Yes, but LINX is by definition, the London INternet eXchange Why they'd POP maidenhead I don't know!

Originally Posted by matt40k

The reason I want LINX at BS is so I can get 2x Fibre 100mb connections for £160... OK you will need BGP, but you can pick one up cheap enough.

This made me smile, ever so slightly. First off, LINX won't do fibre into their Exchange at 100mb. Second, it's not just £160 . You could join LINX right now if you wanted to, there's nothing stopping you. There are providers who are able to pass you a Vlan back to BlueSq. and provide you with the service without any issues what-so-ever.

BGP isn't something you can pick up out the box, which is why NetSumo offer services to people so they are able to run BGP on their network. The other major issue is, it's a requirement of LINX to be "savvy" with what you're doing. Basically, on LINX, you're pretty much in the same boat as the big boys, BT, AOLTW, Virgin Media/Blueyonder/NTL - 5089, so you could "break" the internet as it were.

The issue is with anything like this is that LINX like any organisation, the investment required to open a new PoP is huge. I'm on one of the committees at LINX, and there is regular discussion for "new sites". As there are too many new sites popping up around London, and perhaps a little further out, there isn't really the audience at BlueSQ who would require/want a LINX connection. Also the major issue is getting dark fibre to the building, would it not? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just my personal observation. Also, I'm not saying that there isn't anyone in BlueSQ who wouldn't want a LINX connection, but the huge important factor is how LINX will be able to support the site, as it will have to be a "spur" site due to the distance, and the increase in latency.

Hope that helps!

The bigger point you missed out on alex, he seams to be under the impression by joining linx he gets free transit?

Urg, it's not fibre! :P.. Anyway, you actually do a hell of a lot of work to get good use out of LINX. Neil will back me up on this one, it takes a long time to build up relationships, and to build up traffic profiles to justify bigger players peering with you. LINX doesn't necessarily lower costs! Taking partial transit from people lik Goscomb, OHTele and Enta is a MUCH better option!

Originally Posted by matt40k

The reason I want LINX at BS is so I can get 2x Fibre 100mb connections for £160... OK you will need BGP, but you can pick one up cheap enough.

Is a significant amount of your traffic going to go to people who will be prepared to peer with you then ?

100Mb will be copper, 1Gb a choice of copper or fibre, 160/month for 1*100Mb, if using copper and connecting to the 2nd peering lan you get the 2nd connection free, plus £2k/year membership

No idea where you can pickup a "BGP" Its a protocol not a device...

I doubt LINX will be PoPing BSq anytime soon, as those that are there and potential members in the main have their conectivity and networks somehwere that LINX has already setup a presence.

LINX didn't keep their Interxion PoP open, so I can't see them PoP'ing BSq any time soon - and Interxion is a proper DC, better than some of the DCs which have LINX available IMHO, but that's a whole other thread.

To be honest, with comments like your final sentance, I can see you getting quite a lot of negative votes and not being able to join, as people would be far too worried about you breaking things. BGP isn't like hooking up your ADSL at home.

Yeah, exactly, if you're pushing enough transit to make linx worthwhile, the the odds are that by that point you probably know what you're doing (or you're renting someone who does, like cameron/rob/neil). It's certainley not a cheap option, i've looked at it multiple times to try and get better reliability, but for the traffic that I push, and the lack of knowledge and budget I have, I've stayed with just buying transit from someone else

These days there are so many decent ISP's offering bandwidth at fairly reasonable prices that its not really worth going down the route of multihoming yourself UNLESS you specifically need some of the additional benefits of doing so. Like setting up a geographically diverse network for DR purposes for example.

Otherwise i'd leave it until you have the budget to cope with such a think properly. Or the knowledge yourself.

Is it just me that doesn't see where the quote (or the context of it) comes from? Confusion reigns!

And as far as what James says about singlehoming on a decent network, never a truer word said. I am yet to fathom whatever the perceived benefits were of some of the more recent ASes.

Originally Posted by philb

I am yet to fathom whatever the perceived benefits were of some of the more recent ASes.

The best ones are where they buy transit from two cheap providers - but haven't realised that one of those providers also relies on their other provider for most of their connectivity - classic.

The best ones are where they buy transit from two cheap providers - but haven't realised that one of those providers also relies on their other provider for most of their connectivity - classic.

Indeed, I've seen a few cases of that in the last year or so.

Yep, loads of it going on, people setting up offering transit without much of a clue and some secondhand tat from eBay. The best I saw recently was:

Provider 1 buys transit from A & B
A & B both buy transit from C
A also buys transit from B

Net result, A is a worthless connection to them.