How worried is too worried? Plus, a Global Crossing Story.

["Christopher Wolff" <chris () bblabs com>]

I truely enjoyed the wide range of reponses to my Digital Island post.  Everything from DI is perfectly justified to 
'tell DI to stick it' haha.

I certainly do not run the largest ISP, nor the smallest, but my small company is managing customer connectivity on 
both coasts of the continental US.  My customers know me as the one that cares about their network infrastructure and 
can answer most questions quickly.  I enjoy offering personal service.

I also take pride in managing my network well.  I know, for the most part, what kinds of traffic are passing through my 
network.  This helps me take a proactive stance to issues before they become my customers' business impediments.

Therefore, I have to respectfully take exception to the opinion of "Welcome to the Internet, there's nothing you can 
do, just don't worry about 441 packets."  

I partner with companies that share my view of network management.  Recently I had an issue with a customer that was 
claiming poor throughput.  Global crossing did everything in their power to analyze their network, my network, and my 
customers server farm.  Although this turned out to be a TCP/IP tuning issue on the particular host, Global Crossing 
did not charge me a premium for investigating this issue.  

Throughout this resolution, Global Crossing earned my respect and confidence that I am *partnered* with a vendor 
instead of just buying bandwidth from them.

Just my $0.02,

Christopher J. Wolff, VP, CTO
Broadband Laboratories