NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Re: a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing
At 09:08 AM 4/23/2008, Warren Kumari wrote:
>Um, no, a RST is a legitimate method of *one endpoint* of a session
>informing *the other endpoint* that the sate-machine is out of whack
>-- probably because the sequence numbers are not correct (this is a
>general form of not having any session at all).
Not so. Routers send RST packets. All the time. We've had them set up
to do this for 15 years.
>The source address field of an IP packet is where the IP address of
>the sending machine goes -- it can be though of as the signature line
>in a letter, the from address on an envelope, etc.
This is incorrect. An address is not a name, nor is it an identity. The
address belongs to the ISP. In fact may, it may not correspond to a single
customer (as is true on our network, where most customers are fed through
routers using network address translation) or may be reassigned on a minute
by minute basis. The ISP has the right to block traffic to any one of its
addresses and/or to terminate any session passing through one of its
routers -- especially if that traffic violates a specific provision of
our terms of service. The user has agreed to those terms of service and
has agreed that we may enforce them.
>Only if you are working from the assumption that the termination of a
>session by an intermediate device due to congestion is in some way
>reasonable.
It is not only reasonable to enforce our contract; the user has agreed
to it.
--Brett Glass
[ I suspect that ARIN might find the apparent assertion that
all addresses belong to ISPs to be rather amusing. Last time
I checked, contracting with an ISP to route your addresses
did not give the ISP "ownership" rights to those addresses.
Surprise! Lots of folks other than ISPs control blocks of
IPv4 address space.
ISPs can put almost anything they want in their terms of
service, and many do so in such general terms that they
amount to "we can do whatever we want to or with your data,
and if you don't like it, take a hike." That a particular
small WISP spells things out in more detail is very useful,
but in general the operating environment and contraints of
most small ISPs are -- from a realistic standpoint -- not
very relevant to the vast bulk of Internet users around the
country or the world, who mostly receive their Internet
services from large or gigantic ISPs and have very limited
(and in some cases no) real choices.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]