On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 23:22:54 BST, Peter Ellison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Hello List. > > I downloaded the patch via Windoze update for Exploder 6 this Morning. No > problems with that 2 Min max. Took the shut down option, system reboots all > OK. Point Browser @ my ISPs home page to check the config, the firewall > tells me modules have changed (as expected) and I release the application, > so far so good. It's at this stage the firewall starts to object as shown > below. > > 80.15.236.33 = AKAMAI FT UK Port 1421 = Gandalf? > > Am I being paranoid or IS there something going on here.
Akamai is a large well-known company that provides (basically) net-caching for paying customers - rather than have the content on one website, an Akamai'zed site will direct you to the nearest Akamai cache. We have an Akamai rack in our machine room, it's quite nice when you're surfing along, and the website is 2 hops away, and the slow hop is 100BaseT. ;) Incidentally, they implement it using some DNS games - the URL will have a hostname like g42.a19.akamai.net, and if *I* query their DNS, they'll see I'm somewhere in 128.173/16 and give me back a DNS reply that points at our Akamai rack.. If somebody elsewhere looks it up, they'll get back a *different* reply with a different address... I'll bet if you traceroute from 81.152.xx.xx to 80.15.236.33, you'll find that it's REALLY close by, network-wise. Microsoft was basically forced into this because they're having performance issues with windowsupdate.microsoft.com - having all 750 million Windows users download the patch for MS03-026 through one pipe really sucks. It must have stuck in their craw to sign the contract, as Akamai is a Linux-oid box.... :)
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