Comments on: When the Internet hits 256K default routes, watch out

By: Victor Critelli

Victor Critelli — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:01:14 +0000

what is the internet route sizes today?

By: William

William — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:39:38 +0000

Well, the difference between people “turning a deaf ear” and trying to save money by cutting down on frivolous expenses is a pretty fuzzy line. I mean, people are constantly trying to tell you that some part of your world is going to break and if you would only buy their product, it’ll all be okay.
It’s a hard call on which is which, you know?

Cyde: I’ll watch out for it, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do on my end even if it *does* happen. What would the effects look like? It seems as though little parts of the Internet would flicker out for a few minutes or hours at a time. I’m imagining one of those nighttime pictures of the States from space, with little bits getting darker every so often. But, y’know, with Internet instead of power.
Heh, ‘Net-powered lights. Sort of reminds me of the ansible from the Ender’s Game series.

By: Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm

Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:38:29 +0000

Exactly, but they could prevent the problem from causing harm if they have the proper knowledge. The cost for replacing the hardware will be roughly the same, but the cost of having a broken network would be saved.

Still, I will be very surprised if no networks get problems of this kind. People tend to turn a deaf ear to knowledge when money is involved.

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:02:16 +0000

Well they would definitely spend money on a hardware upgrade that they didn’t understand when their whole network was broken and that was the only way to fix things.

By: Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm

Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:20:50 +0000

Having to spend money makes the problem even worse than just having to download a software patch. After all, if customers cannot be bothered to install a “free” software update, why would they spend money on a hardware upgrade the purpose of which they they do not understand?

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:54:42 +0000

William: Well there’s a chance it might cause widespread loss of Internet connectivity, so at least watch out for it.

Jens: Unfortunately it’s not as easy as getting people to install critical software updates. With those, you just have to download and install. To fix these older routers, they have to spend a lot of money acquiring new ones and then swap them out (that’s a lot of cable unplugging and replugging).

By: Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm

Jens 'Spacejens' Rydholm — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:47:45 +0000

Working as a software designer has taught me that the biggest problem with critical updates is convincing the customers and general public that they are indeed critical.

That said, I think that many networks have modern equipment capable of handling this problem. Many, but not all. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:51:00 +0000

No, I’m not worried about it. What is worrying about it going to do for me? Or for the problem?

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:38:58 +0000

Aye, but the more important question is, are you worried about the 256K routes problem? You’ve all seized on that one little part of the post while ignoring the larger issues!

It’s like you’re trying to embiggify a molehill into a mountain.

By: arensb

arensb — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:44:24 +0000

Agreed. “Embiggify” is not cromulent.

By: William (green)

William (green) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:43:31 +0000

While “embiggen” is a word, I draw the line at “embiggify”.