[11250] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Universities (was: What is an "Internet reseller"?)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Simon Poole)
Sun Mar 27 05:04:28 1994
To: tenney@netcom.com (Glenn S. Tenney)
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 20:57:22 +0100 (MET)
Cc: poole@magnolia.eunet.ch, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199403261857.KAA02193@netcom9.netcom.com> from "Glenn S. Tenney" at Mar 26, 94 10:57:01 am
From: Simon Poole <poole@magnolia.eunet.ch>
Glenn Tenney writes
> ...
> Ok, I was over generalizing a bit... and when I said that since the CIX
> board didn't say anything they must agree I knew that wasn't necessarily
> true -- but it did get a few people out of the woodwork...
>
> >The current conflict seems to have it roots in people suddenly realizing
> >that the "Internet" isn't what they thought it was and they want the CIX
> >to give them back their dream (for free).
>
> I think this is absolutely the wrong perception of the "conflict". Let me
> give you an example...
[MIT example deleted]
> I can only conclude that the CIX terms, the way Karl describes them, is NOT
> based on bandwidth, usage, capacity, routers between the net and the
> machines, passing on packets, IP addresses, number of machines, type of
> programs run, or on any other objective basis -- the CIX' terms appear to
> be there strictly to keep the cash flow within it's members, and to keep
> the members' cash flows higher (e.g. to keep one person from signing up and
> paying for a single 56kb full time connection and routing through to 9 of
> their friends for a total of ten machines and therefore "depriving" that
> member from 9 monthly fees). Sure, the concept of a CIX is great, but I'm
> talking about the terms of who should become a member and who needn't
> become a member.
I think I gave a fairly good test on when you might want to become
a CIX member in my answer to the letter with the MITnet example.
To try and answer your question with respect to your coop:
- first and foremost this is a matter between you and
your ISP. They might allow you to split costs with others
or not, the chances on this going through would probably
depend on the effective contents of your proposal.
- if your ISP agrees to your cost spliting model, you
should then think about CIX membership. Use the test
I proposed, probably if your answer is yes to two of
the three questions, then you probably want to become
a member.
Naturally if you do answer my test positive you -are- a commercial
ISP and as such it would be stupid not to be a CIX member, however
if you are just running a "hobby" net, why would you need the
security CIX membership gives you in the first place?
Simon
