Re: Networks ignoring prepends?

[William Herrin <bill () herrin us>]

On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 7:02 AM Jon Lewis <jlewis () lewis org> wrote:
> In one of his messages, William complained that the big bad networks are
> breaking the BGP rules by ignoring as-path length.

To be clear, I don't really care whether you're "breaking the rules."
Moreover, if my words suggested that I thought using BGP's local pref
capability was "breaking the rules," then either you misunderstood me
or I chose my words poorly. What I did say, and stand behind, was that
applying local prefs moves BGP's route selection off the _defaults_,
and if Centurylink was routing to me based instead on the defaults
they'd have made a _good_ route selection instead of a _bad_ one.

I do care whether you're routing packets in a reasonable way. When you
pick the 10-AS path over the 3-AS path because the 10-AS path arrives
from a customer, the odds that you're routing those packets in a
_good_ way are very low. I get that a lot of you do that. I'm telling
you that when you do, you're doing a _bad_ job. If you think you're
justified, well, it's your business. But don't doubt for a second that
you've served your customers poorly.

And before you suggest that I'm not your customer, let me point out
what should be obvious: if none of your paying customers were trying
to reach my network, I wouldn't notice which direction you routed my
packets, let alone care. It's not about serving me, it's about serving
your paying customers. My packets are their packets, and when you send
_their_ packets along the scenic route, you have done a bad job.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
bill () herrin us
https://bill.herrin.us/