Your friend is a bit confused about the usage and purpose of BGP. Generally
you only peer with your upstream providers, and only if you are multi-homed
with more than one ISP. Here's a URL that might help your friend understand
BGP better:
http://www.netaxs.com/~freedman/bgp.html
If you peer with your ISP and get full routes from them you will see all the
possible routes to AOL. You don't need to peer with AOL to get that
information. If you have multiple ISPs and BGP peer with each of them then
your traffic to AOL will travel over the link with the ISP who has the
shortest AS path to AOL. A good bet for AOL is MCI/UUNET or a provider with
a private upstream link to MCI/UUNET. Most of the AOL data transfer network
(AS 1668) runs over MCI backbone.
If your friend has only one upstream provider then BGP peering will do
nothing for him or her, since all the traffic will go to the same provider
anyway. Note that it is only useful to BGP peer with ISPs that you actually
have a physical connection with, and AOL does not sell private connections.
-Dan
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dale Holmes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 7:22 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: BGP peering question
>
>
> A friend of mine has the following problem:
>
> >I've been given the project of establishing peering connections with
> >other ISP's/carriers. The biggest problem I have is finding the
> >right dept to call or e-mail. Take AOL for example, 40% of our
> >traffic is destined for AOL, can't find a clue on how to contact
> >them about establishing a peering session via BGP. Is their a list
> >of companies willing to peer?
>
> Any clues?
>
> Thanks!
> Dale
> [=`)
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