I don't want to crash the 'net

[Sheryl Chapin <schapin () ctel net>]

Hi all,

First, an apology if this is off topic.

A (brief) intro/explanation.

My name is Sheryl Chapin. I am the network administrator for a startup ISP
in Maine. I would say that I am the sr. network admin, except I am the
*only* network admin.  I have 18 years expierience in computers, 10 years
with Unix and 3 with Cisco routers.  I am not a programmer, I am a system
and network administrator.

My topology:

I have two 7513's in two different cities in Maine: Portland and Winthrop.
They are connected via a T3.  I have a T3 connection to UU Net from
Portland and in a week I will have a T3 connection to AGIS from Winthrop.
I have a *very* basic BGP configuration running on the Portland router
right now. 

What I need is some practical help/advice on how to configure my routers
once AGIS is also connected.  I want to be able to load balance and I would
like to do it without crashing a major portion of the internet.  I have
been reading everything I can find on BGP, Avi Freedman's columns and web
pages have been extremely helpfull, but the Cisco documentation just gives
me a headache.  I am not a stupid person, but I am willing to admit that I
have never done this level of configuration before.  I figure I can either
ask for some help and look stupid or crash the internet, and quite frankly,
I would rather look stupid then do something stupid.  (Mr. Freedman's
columns do a really good job of putting the fear of God into someone just
starting out with BGP :-) 

Part of my problem is the documenation does a good job of giving me syntax,
but not of explaining WHY I should or should not do something. For example,
UU Net gave me configuration commands for turning on BGP which included a
"redistribute connected" command.  Someone else from another ISP here in
Maine (that we are co-locating with) told me not to use it.  Now I know
what the redistribute command does, I just haven't found anything anywhere
to explain what the pros and cons are for using it.  How does it affect the
routing?  I really work better when I understand how things work.

So if anyone has any advice, caveats, pointers to docs, things I absolutely
should do or things I absolutely shouldn't do, I would be EXTREMELY
grateful.  

If this is just totally off topic, again, my apologies.

Thanks for your time.

Sheryl Chapin
CommTel Internet
207.377.3508
schapin () ctel net