[59291] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Router crash unplugs 1m Swedish Internet users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stewart, William C (Bill), RTSLS)
Mon Jun 23 18:38:31 2003
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 17:37:59 -0500
From: "Stewart, William C (Bill), RTSLS" <billstewart@att.com>
To: <nanog@trapdoor.merit.edu>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
Jim wrote:
> One router and it takes there entire network off-line...=20
> Maybe someone needs a Intro to Networks 101 class.
I assume things are designed in such a way that if the router were
actually dead, the traffic would take an alternate route.
But the posting commented that they'd been saying something about memory =
corruption.
There are unfortunately too many ways for a router to be=20
"not dead yet", happily answering routing protocol messages
but not bothering to actually forward packets between network =
interfaces,
and if that happens on the router that's your best route due to
geography or BGP or whatever, it can take a while to catch.
Dealing with that is at least Networks 203 or maybe Networks 532 :-)
Additionally, while the article in the press referred to it as a =
"router",
that may be an actual technical description accurately described
by a reporter who knows the technology, or it may be press shorthand
for "one of those high-tech thingies that ISPs use",
or it may be the ISP's Speaker-To-Reporters's watered-down description
of something.
=20
