Re: Initial Route Server Stats for MAE-East

[Mike Nasto <mnasto () franklin nysernet ORG>]

On Sun, 22 Oct 1995, Tim Bass wrote:

> > On Sat, 21 Oct 1995, Mike O'Dell wrote:
> >
> > > remember that using pings to sample connectivity to a very busy
> > > cisco router is not a very reliable probe for several reasons.
> > > Returning pings is a low-priority task in the first place, and
> > > they are rate-limited, so if the processor is busy processing
> > > lots of BGP updates and several folks are fribbling with it 
> > > using ping or SNMP, it is less than clear what they will see.
> > >
> > >   -mo
>
>  Michael A. Nasto quips:
>
> > OK!  Agreed.  So then, what would you use? 
>
> Have you ever been in a classroom and had a student raise his hand,
> answer every question, ask intelligent questions, etc. just to prove
> to the class how smart he or she is.    This is the premise of
> the 'Two Mike's Interchange' above.  One says, HEY!  I know ping packets
> are a lower priority than everything else in a *CISCO* router 
> LOOK AT ME (wave wave). Then another kid in the class quips...
> if PING is not what you would use, give us a better utility.
>
> In fact... EVERYONE ( okay 99.73 percent :-) uses PING.  After all 
> router LOAD is router LOAD.... and if a few ICMP packets can't get 
> back in a subjectly reasonable time.. then DUH.... "da network
> is busy......"  BGP updates take bandwidth just like any other packet.
>
> Of course the 0.27 percent, zen routing gods of the universe just
> feel the load and the harmonic BGP update patterns and PING between
> the BGP updates.... for a better answer.
>
> Sorry, I could not resist.... and apologize for the satire.  PING!!
> PING!! PING!!
>
> Tim

Yes, Tim.  I always hated the "geeky" kid who always raised his hand or 
had an answer for everything, too.  But, I was serious with this 
question.  I thought it was rather obvious, too, that the router may be 
busy so, what is the point?  If you don't use 'ping' or 'traceroute', 
what else do you use?  I thought he had an answer.  Obviously not. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael A. Nasto                        Customer Support Manager
NYSERNet, Inc.                          Phone: 315-453-2912 x 256
200 Elwood Davis Road                   Fax: 315-453-3052
Suite 103                               Email: mnasto () franklin nysernet org
Liverpool, NY 13088-6147                       mnasto () transit nyser net
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