My DE and I were practically rolling on the floor with this one.
Rule number one: the customer is always right.
Rule number two: when the customer's head is where the sun don't shine,
refer to rule number one. ;->
I agree with much of your assessment. Problem I have is that I work for a
telco, and sometimes what we in the data side are given is the result of a
telco account manager trying to meet T1 and DSL quota by making these kinds
of suggestions. Gullible customers then latch on to what has been presented
as a good idea. This RFI had all the markings of a telco-based solution.
I do have a question for you, based on something you stated below:
Recognizing that you have two outbound interfaces - T1 and DSL, how will
custom queuing deliver the required packets to the appropriate interface?
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of
Stephen Skinner
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2001 2:55 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Design Challenge - a bit off topic [7:195]
Some interesting questions....
me personally ....
no-one has talked about restrictions of any sort ( a-la firewall)..so lets
say there isn`t ....just use 1 of 16 different custom queues ...not really
an effective tool fir this job but hey.....Design solutions it is ...
I also don`t like the idea about this T1/DSL link stuff...i always advise
customers to have the same....."if you want to have a SEEMLESS service don`t
skimp ......all things should be equal".
obviously it wont be totally seamless as you will have a lot of info going
across 1 instead of 2 links...but it`s closer than DSL
.....
Questions for the customer??????
would you like ME to design your network or would you like to do it
yourself......being as i have years of experience and you have none...
JUST SLIGHTLY MORE POLITELY...
then i would convince the customer that my way was best and had loads of
advantages and his way would lead to lots of scratching chins and "ohhh i
wouldn't`t have done it that way...Boss" by support engineers from whichever
company he gets to support him as i won`t be going anywhere near his network
if he can`t be bothered to listen....
AGAIN just more politely
HTH
steve
P.S that is no joke ....i have had to TELL customers that before ...they
just won`t listen.....and i do still have my job
>From: "John Neiberger"
>Reply-To: "John Neiberger"
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: Design Challoenge - a bit off topic [7:195]
>Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 02:45:45 -0400
>
>Thoughts inline below....
>
>| Howard's comment brings to mind a problem my Design Engineer raised when
>| responding to a customer RFI.
>|
>| Howard's comment: . (Pause for usual mystification on why someone wants
>| routing protocols to pass through
>| a firewall, a fairly frequent question).
>|
>| The customer RFI stated requirement ( wording as best as I can remember
>):
>| Solution will entail two internet connections, a T1 and a DSL. Routing
>will
>| be configured such that priority traffic will use the T1 connection, and
>| ordinary internet browsing will use the DSL connction.
>|
>| Lindy and I were having a real good laugh about the vagueness of the
>| requirement, when we decided to try to come up with a solution. We came
>up
>| with a number of questions for the customer to elaborate upon, and a
>| possible solution. Would anyone else care to use this as a test of
>design
>| issues?
>|
>| If memory serves, the customer defined "priority" traffic as e-mail and
>| connectivity to a certain external web site.
>|
>| So:
>|
>| 1) what are some of the questions the customer still needs to |
>answer?
>
>My first question to them would be "Do you really think that email and that
>one website alone justify a full T-1, while the rest of the internet
>traffic
>for you company goes upstream on a measly DSL circuit?"
>
>Question #2: Do you desire some sort of fault-tolerance? Should one
>circuit be able to take over in case of a failure on the other? If the T-1
>fails and we move everything to the DSL circuit, do you care if we
>completely squash the rest of your traffic if necessary to prioritize the
>email and web traffic formerly on the T-1?
>
>Question #3: Do you really need a T-1? Could you get by with another DSL
>circuit or a fractional T-1?
>
>|
>| 2) What are some possible solutions to this requirement?
>| ( assume the T1 and the DSL terminate on the same router )
>|
>
>Question #4: Are these circuits coming from the same or different
>providers? Do you have your own address space available? (silly question,
>let's assume not ) If the answer is "different providers" then IP
>address allocation and return-traffic paths become an issue. Let's say
>that
>Provider A (T-1) issues a /27 and Provider B issues a /28. If we NAT
>internal addresses to only provider A's addresses--even for traffic leaving
>toward Provider B--then all that return web traffic will come in on the
>T-1,
>which kinda violates the spirit of the requirements.
>
>[Actually, upon further reflection, this is an issue even if the circuits
>are from the same provider. With two connections to the internet,
>successfully manipulating traffic going both directions on both circuits
>can
>be tricky.]
>
>So then, how do you decide who to NAT to which addresses?
>
>One solution to that problem is to check out a Fatpipe Xtreme or a similar
>product by Radware that handles a lot of this for you. Pretty cool stuff,
>we'll be getting the Radware box in the near future for just this purpose.
>
>On another routing issue, it appears that there will be a very limited
>number of destinations for traffic on the T-1 so one very simple solution
>would be static routes pointing out the T-1 and a default route pointing to
>the DSL circuit.
>
>Policy routing might also come in handy, I think, but it might be a bigger
>hammer than is necessary. No need to complicate this if it doesn't need to
>be complicated.
>
>Is any of that the sort of thing you're looking for? You keep catching me
>late at night when I should be sleeping. I may not be thinking clearly
>enough to answer this.
>
>Regards,
>John
>
>
>
>
>
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