May 30, 2008

Keeping the Internet Running

@ 10:36 am

Did you know that the Internet as a whole has 13 root name servers that make it easy for you to find what your looking for on the Internet? Did you also know that Cogent runs one of the 13 root servers - Root Server C - and has been doing so for over 5 years?The term “root name server” is generally used to describe the 13 well-known root name servers that implement the root namespace domain for the Internet’s official global implementation of the Domain Name System. A root name server is an entry point to a tree-like lookup system (DNS) that converts human readable tokens into machine usable identifiers. When Cogent took control of Root Server C, c-root was a single underpowered machine on the East Coast. Cogent increased this to a cluster of servers early on to get the Root Server up to best current practices. We expanded this further to include a cluster of servers on the West Coast. These additional servers provide redundancy in case of fiber cuts and help us defend against denial of service attacks with the goal of providing all the users of the Internet with the best service possible.

Cogent recently turned up a c-root name server node in Madrid. This is the first name server node for Cogent outside of the United States. A surprising fact that makes Cogent unique among Root Server providers is that we are the only organization running a root name server that owns its own backbone! In addition to this new node in Madrid, Cogent has plans to turn up another node in Frankfurt, making Cogent a good Net Citizen in keeping the Internet functioning for all to use.

April 15, 2008

Cogent Wears a White Hat

@ 10:01 am

No, this is not a scene from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but Cogent definitely has become a “good guy” in the battle against unsolicited bulk e-mail (aka “Spam”).Recently, Cogent received the White Hat Star from Spamhaus. The Spamhaus Group has over six hundred and fifty million users. It has the daunting task of tracking the Internet’s Spammers, Spam Gangs and Spam Services. The Spamhaus Group provides dependable real-time anti-spam protection for Internet networks and works closely with Law Enforcement to identify and pursue spammers worldwide.

Spamhaus maintains and provides a Spamhaus Block List (SBL) to its users. The SBL provides a real time database of IP addresses of verified spam sources and spam operations. Many of the world’s Internet backbones, large Tier-1 providers, ISPs (in almost every country), large governmental and military networks in both the U.S. and Europe along with the best giant free email providers use the SBL to identify, tag or block incoming connections from IP addresses which Spamhaus deems to be involved in the sending or origination of Spam.

Cogent’s Network Abuse and Security team have worked tirelessly and diligently over the last 6 years enforcing Cogent’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Through the adoption, steadfast resolve, and enforcement of polices designed specifically to protect the security, integrity, reliability, and privacy of Cogent’s network and customers, Cogent has earned a “Spamhaus White Hat Star”.

Receiving a Spamhaus White Hat Star is a significant milestone. It was reached by resolving all of the SBL’s under Cogent Communications as monitored by Spamhaus. Having zero SBL listings generally mean that an ISP has a Security/Abuse team that is actively enforcing an anti-spam policy.

You Can view Cogent’s White Hat Star at: http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/listings.lasso?isp=cogentco.com

As a senior Spamhaus editor stated: “WooHoo! Congratulations, that’s awesome for a major network like Cogent!”

So throw your hat up in the air (white hats only) and give a “WooHoo” yourself to Cogent’s Network Abuse and Security Team!

March 5, 2008

Cogent Expands Footprint

@ 11:41 am

Did you know that Cogent continues to grow its network each week by adding any combination of new customers, new buildings or new markets? Did you also know that Cogent has connected, or is about to connect, the following markets?

In the United States, Orange County, McAllen, TX, San Antonio, TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Charlotte, NC, Milwaukee, WI, Pittsburgh, PA, Stamford, CT, Boca Raton, FL, Providence, RI and Las Vegas, NV. Montreal, Canada
In the United Kingdom, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, and Slough
In Italy, Arezzo, Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Venice/Padua
Prague, Czech Rep.
Helsinki, Finland
Budapest, Hungary
Dublin, Ireland
Cologne, Germany
Oslo, Norway
Malmo, Sweden
Bucharest, Romania
Bratislava, Slovakia

Today, Cogent has a presence in over 100 markets in 20 countries. Cogent picks markets based on customer demand first and foremost, then we look at a number of factors to see if we can service the potential customer in that market. We look at availability of dark fiber, density and location of business districts in comparison to dark fiber and the types of businesses present in the area.  If everything falls into alignment, Cogent makes every effort to expand into that market to service a new customer.As you can see by the above list of expansion markets, we have had a lot of customer demand!!

February 15, 2008

SCALE

@ 3:25 pm

When you talk about scale, you usually compare something very large to something very small.  Cliché’s like an elephant compared to a mouse come to mind or a dinosaur to a human.  But how do you compare the size of ISP’s?  Customers?  Physical miles in the network?  Capacity?  Peering?  Traffic?  There is a plethora of choices. 

When you think about Cogent and scale, you should definitely think about capacity and traffic first.  In those two categories, Cogent is one of the leading providers in the world.  Cogent has an all- IP backbone that ranges in size from 80 Gbps to 180 Gbps.   

Most importantly, the most accurate scale comparison is the traffic carried on your network.  To give you some sense of Cogent’s scale, Cogent carries over 9 Petabytes per day of Internet traffic across its network.  That equates to watching back-to-back full-length movies on the Internet for over 1,300 years.  What happened 1,300 years ago in 700 A.D.?  China invented gunpowder for one.  1,300 years of continuous movies running every day across Cogent’s network.  That’s scale!