New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.
Why do some providers use cogent as a major peer?
Void_Whisperer
Member
in General
I've seen two dedicated server providers and a few vps providers that use cogent as a major peer, which basically means they are screwing over anyone with comcast later in the afternoon, as ping that should normally be about 40ms goes all of the way up to 100ms..
Comments
Cheap
True.. I wish comcast and cogent got along better.
Cogent <-> Comcast is much better since Netflix started paying Comcast for direct peering.
Cogent provides a lot of value for the money. They have some great routes to other providers and on-net routes are great. They also have a ton of peers and customers, so it's the cheapest way to reach most of those. They do have some issues with a few providers, mostly the US eyeball networks (Comcast, Verizon, etc).
how about HE? is it as cheap as cogent?
They are both 25-50c/Mbps networks - very cheap
He.net is cheaper and even worse than Cogent, at least here.
does any one here in LowEND market has a tier-1 peer?
@Dnwk - Depending on location we have Level 3, AboveNet, TeliaSonera, ChinaTelecom, etc
We have NTT, GTT, and Cogent (depending on location), and use Cogent sparingly.
@dnwk well, Cogent is a Tier-1. "Tier-1" is not the same as "good".
Cogent is Tier 1.
I've also seen a increase in networks starting to use Above.net as well (Zayo) recently.
Really? Cogent is tier-1? Woops.... they means they don't need to pay comcast
Primary Tier 1's are:
ATT
Cogent
Deutsche Telecom
Level 3
Qwest (now CenturyLink)
Sprint
Teleglobe (now Tata)
Telia
Verizon (previously UUNet)
XO
By the classic definition of Tier 1, even Level3 doesn't qualify any more as they are paying Comcast. The whole "Tier #" system doesn't really apply in today's bandwidth markets, as the big eyeball ISPs (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, etc) have so much market power.
Based on the original Tier system:
DTAG: Not Tier1 - Never was. Pays for transit and peers public (even though limited).
Cogent: Not Tier1 - Anymore. Pays Comcast, peers on public exchanges.
Level 3 (and GBLX): Not Tier1 - Anymore. Pays Comcast, pays some latin american ISPs (via GBLX).
Qwest/Sprint still are but smaller (not much info on them), TATA still is entirely, Telia is not (peers public extensively, pays for transit), Verizon pays at least for some ürivate peerings, XO never was Tier1 and always paid.
By definition some older US/EU university/education networks also qualify as Tier1s with settlement/ratio free cost-free upstream from i.e. Level3.
"Wannabe Tier1s" (that were not at one point T1) are for example UPC/Aorta, DTAG, TPSA and HE, PCCW also to some extent.
The Tier system is not really actual anymore with todays large Tier2s like HE though.
And the network my beloved uncle manages? (Telmex/Carlos slim)?
Cogent has been having major peering issues with Comcast (and other carriers) in some markets. Chicago was experiencing terrible latency and lots of packet loss in particular. Though, it has been getting slightly better as of late.
Overall, they are a good value for the money, in a mix. There is no single provider that has the best routes to every network. I've had crap routes through Level 3.
We have Internap, PCCW and Cogent. Working with Zayo, Tinet, Telia and a few others to add more transit. All takes time but they'll be online
Cogent has some of the best routes to some locations (not all and many do suck of course). It's about making it work and not why Cogent.
Every carrier has its use - it's about how it's used and why.
This.
Cost is no doubt one of the biggest reasons - Cogent on a average commit comes in at 25c/Mbps - $250/Gbps. Whereas someone like Telia or Level3 will want about 10 times that $2500/Gbps.
Cogent also has a number of good quality routes which are mostly their own network but if you properly manage your network/route optimise it then you can cherry pick the routes you want from them.