7.0 Hooking up to the Internet

7.1 How do I hook up to the Internet?

By finding an Internet provider in your area who's willing to hook you up, or by connecting with the major services such as Net-99, SprintNet or AlterNet.

7.2 How does the Internet work?

Every once in a while, someone drops me a line in my mailbox asking a question like, "Why do I have to pay the phone company to hook me up and a wholesale provider to connect me? Why not hook me up directly to the Internet?"

Because there is no such thing.

The Internet is not a single person or body, but rather a whole bunch of people and companies working together. The Internet is composed of complex interconnections between several different large companies, who do the long distance routing for you.

If you're a typical person reading this FAQ, the odds that you could participate in this high-level long distance routing are practically nil. You would need a Cisco 7000 router, which costs over $ 100,000, as well as highly trained engineering help. Effectively, you would have to compete with Sprint or MCI, with your own long distance lines and such.

A company called Net-99 was able to start up by leasing lines from a company called Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS). They had a fairly prosperous run and then they got taken over and absorbed into the AGIS network. After that, most of the original partners either left or were booted out. If you're determined to start your own backbone provider, though, history appears to show that it can be done, if you have deep enough pockets. However, if you're considering operation of an ISP, be forewarned that being a backbone provider is far more complex and challenging. My advice to you would be to try to walk before you run.

All these long distance companies peer - that is, they hook up to each other - at places called Interchange Points, such as MAE-East. This is why the traceroute command often shows very confusing routes from one place to another. For a while, MAE-East was the only reliable way to go from one backbone (long distance) provider to another, so a packet travelling from Los Angeles to the San Francisco bay area would go all the way across the country on one provider, whiz through MAE-East, and then go back across the country again to San Francisco.

As an individual provider, you have basically no chance of being able to successfully conclude peering agreements with the big boys at one of these sites. And if they don't have a concrete reason to talk to you - either sites their subscribers want to connect to or payments from you to them - they won't. And bear in mind that if you're at a major interchange point, you will need to peer with all the carriers there to get full coverage - not just one.

7.3 What are the levels of connection you can buy?

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                                                            Maximum
Connection   Equipment Required              Approx Cost    Simutaneous Users

28.8K SLIP 28.8k modem $ 300 around 3

56k Leased CSU/DSU 250 around 8 Router -or- routing card 2300 or 500 T1 Leased CSU/DSU 1400 around 200 Router -or- routing card 2300 or 500 ------------------------------------------------------

Some connections will require that you buy a modem, router and CSU/DSU for both ends of the connection. ISI Network Associates, for example, requires this, meaning that their 56k connection would cost their $ 1,000 startup fee plus two times $ 2,550 - a total of $ 6,100. As an alternative, you could pay a $ 4,000 startup fee and still buy the equipment on your end. Other connections furnish the equipment on both ends, including a service contract. Unfortunately, the latter type of connection is normally prohibitively expensive.

The telephone company rates for these connections range from reasonable to horrendous. On the low end, the phone line I use for my 28.8 SLIP is a conventional residential line which costs around $ 20/month. Leased line fees for a 56k line range (in Southern California, anyway) from about $ 100-200/month. T1 fees range from $ 400 - $ 1,200 a month, depending on the distance between your site and the nearest provider POP.

7.4 What is Frame Relay?

The following Information about Frame Relay connections was contributed by Sean Shaprio ; unfortunately my explanation is sufficiently changed from his original words that errors are particularly likely. He suggests that you read "the little 30 page book (published by Motorola?) that describes it in excellent detail" if you are seriously considering this.

Frame Relay connections are an up and coming form that are closer in nature to a switched telephone connection than a traditional 56k/T1 link. To connect to a provider with frame relay, you run a leased line to the nearest frame relay access point. The connection is then made to your provider, even if it is a very long distance away. The provider runs a high speed connection to his nearest frame relay node, where it can then get split off to several connections. So instead of having multiple 56k connections to his customers, he pulls a single T1 into a frame relay switch; the packets are then switched over to the customer's 56k hookups. This is the service that lets providers like Netcom and CRL operate nationally while still having all their equipment in their original Bay Area headquarters.

Dave Van Allen was kind enough to contribute a more comprehensive explanation of Frame Relay than we had in the past.

Frame Relay's main advantage is that it's a cut-rate form of leased line service. "For instance, in the Northeast Bell Atlantic region, 56k service has an initial install of about $ 200 and a monthly fixed cost of apx. $ 150. You Tools [his provider] offers 56k (with a 56k CIR) access for $ 399.00 per month, including the Internet access (Port) and telco charges. The customer premise equipment (CPE) [the equipment the customer has to buy to use the connection] is about the same for Frame Relay as it is for ISDN - approximately $ 900."

The main problem with frame relay is that you are sharing a switched line with a potentially large number of other users; this line has a fixed capacity that is divided between you and them. Your provider will give you a committed information rate (CIR), which tells you the minimum speed your line will connect at, no matter what the conditions. Sprint presently gives a CIR of zero, which means that they do not guarantee that your connection will be continuously running at any particular speed, or even operational at all. So in theory, if you were running a Frame Relay T1, you might have a virtually worthless connection if all the other connection users took up all the bandwidth.

There may be something seriously wrong with the above paragraph. Dave Van Allen again: "In the FAQ, you reference Sprint's CIR of '0', meaning that they don't guarantee any performance. This is not the case as I know it. The CIR of '0' indicated that the FR link has NO committed information rate, and the link is specified to run at the bandwidth sold. So, a 56K FR link, with a CIR of '0' (from Sprint, at least) will run at 56k baud at all times."

The reason I haven't lifted the previous explanation from the FAQ is that it seems to fit the facts; Karl Denninger has been complaining about the "0" Sprint CIR for some time. Certainly the complaints I have read about Sprint's service seem to imply that the "0" CIR may indicate a lower quality service commitment. However, from a technical standpoint, Dave may well be right.

Dave continues: "With Frame Relay, the FR provider has a system of switching ports that share the bandwidth of the Frame network. Because a switched packet network is a non-dedicated data path, the equipment used to provide the service is normally the limiting factor in just how much bandwidth 'everyone' can have. If the provider is under-utilizing the capacity of the switch, then ALL traffic in that switch may always travel at the highest speed -your- line can handle.

"If traffic in the switch gets heavy, then the provider must either add more bandwidth, or limit the speed of the connections during peak periods. This is what the CIR is. CIR is a provider imposed limit on the speed of your connection. Most phone companies sell like this: You get a 56k FR connection with a CIR of 30k - this means that you will be guaranteed that the connection will go at least 30k and will peak at 56k. In reality, in most areas, that connection will do 56k and might rarely drop to 30k for brief periods."

"If you purchase a 56k FR connection with a 30K CIR, you can often request that they special-build you a 56k CIR connection. There will be a small surcharge for this, but it is possible.

"Frame relay can work up to T-1 rates, and it is usually the least costly option at those speeds."

The advantage of Frame Relay should be fairly obvious; since you're sharing a large connection with other people, you aren't paying the phone company for hideously expensive leased lines. Because of this, Frame Relay is a much cheaper service than the traditional 56k or T1 leased line.

This form of connection requires a special frame relay compatible router to work.

* How is the performance compared to standard 56k/T1? Karl Denninger and his partner Joseph Stroup initially decided against offering Frame Relay with their Net-99 service due to low connection quality. However, they are currently offering a pilot Frame Relay project at an attractive rate; they will expand it if it meets their quality standards.

7.5 Who are the main national providers, and how much?

For T1 access, your cheapest national provider might be Net-99/AGIS Since the AGIS takeover, however, I've heard a lot less about them than I did before. One source says that they defaulted on their long distance bills during the merger, which seems like a rather bad thing for them to do. Karl Denninger, whose gold-plated reputation helped get Net-99 off to a successful start, is no longer with the company. The good things I've heard about Net-99 came mainly from fans of Karl Denninger and Joseph Stroup, the principals; now that the takeover has occured, I understand that both have left the company.

Karl Denninger recently sent a message to the Inet-Access mailing list giving the reasons he left Net-99. Apparently they told him he had a stake in the company based on a handshake deal, but then when Net-99 was sold, he was neither consulted nor paid. In addition, he believed that they were taking advantage of the equipment he had effectively donated to the effort; they promised him a Cisco 7000, but never delivered. As a result, he became disillusioned with the company and quietly severed all connections with it.

An anonymous Net-99 customer had this to say about the merger:

(begin quote)

Some anonymous comments on AGIS/Net99, as I have been a customer since August.

The transition has gone smoothly. AGIS is moving Net99's infrastructure from MFS Telecom over to WillTel. The moving of the circuits and routes has gone well.

There have been some bumps in the billing department. Most of the errors have been in the customers' favor, so no complaints here. I have heard noise from former Net99 employees, not sure if it is griping or grounded in fact. I have heard some noise from AGIS about how Net99's infrastructure was cheap and poorly designed, etc. Sounds like someone upset somebody in the buyout.

All in all, their performance hasn't changed much since the buyout. They've raised their prices, so I'm glad I got in when I did.

(end quote)

Still, Net-99 customers seem to be staying with the company, although some have griped about service problems. We'll wait and see what happens here; I'd like to hear more comments from Net-99/Aegis users for the current status of the venture. Your anomynity will be protected if you so request.

For information on Net-99, check out http://www.net99.net/. For AGIS, look at http://www.agis.com/.

Kevin Kadow says that AlterNet will sell to resellers at $ 750 over their quoted prices; my previous FAQ draft said that they were not selling to resellers at all. However, they are "getting more buddy-buddy with Microsoft after their deal." I'm not sure what to think there; I'd be inclined to stay away.

MCI has made a really big push into the Internet market. Of all the major providers, it now seems to have the best reputation. In fact, you will notice that it's doing a healthy percentage of the net's long distance communications now. The one black mark is that they have reserved the right to start volume charges; what that means in this competitive market is anyone's guess.

I recently commented to the Inet-Access list that Sprint and other large net providers have a reputation for poor service. I then heard from three different Sprint users who professed complete happiness with the service, so it looks like they have cleaned up their act. Only a few months ago, I heard bad things about them at about the same rate.

If the national provider rates seem too expensive, you may wish to hook up with a local provider. Watch out for the connection quality, though; if the local company sells you a T1, and all they have is a T1 connection themselves, you're bound to get mightily poor throughput to the rest of the Internet.

If you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Little Garden (TLG) has an excellent reputation and very fair rates. For that reason, the Bay Area is largely overloaded with Internet providers, so unless you have a very special business plan, you may not want to set up there.

7.6 Where could I get a list of national and local providers?

An excellent starting point is the DLIST, "an online list of Internet service providers who offer dedicated line connections." To find out how to receive an updated version of this list, send mail to dlist@ora.com. (From the book 'Connecting to the Internet: An O'Reilly Buyer's Guide', by Susan Estrada, which includes a printed copy of the DLIST in an appendix).

Here is the ``Yahoo'' reference, which is apparently more up to date:

Business:Corporations:Internet Access Providers http://www.yahoo.com/Business/Corporations/ Internet_Access_Providers/

Note that this all has to be on one line.

To scope out your competition before taking the plunge, an excellent resource is The List of providers at http://www.thelist.com/. This is a combination provider list and survey form that will tell you who the best (and worst) regarded providers are in your area.

7.7 What about a SLIP connection?

For the most part, a SLIP connection is not considered sufficient for a serious provider. However, it may be the best way to start if you are unsure of demand for your service or want to test-market your ideas. It certainly lets you hook up for a minimal amount of money, assuming you can find a resellable connection.

If you get SLIP, try to get CSLIP (compressed SLIP), and make sure you know what baud rate the line is fixed at. I got a 28.8k SLIP with the baud rate fixed at 28.8, and the result was that I could not get a newsfeed consisting of alt.* plus rec.* without falling behind. Be sure you get as good a SLIP connecion as possible.

Next section: What are interchange agreements, and why should I care?