Johnny N. Ginear has provided hosting and ISP services to the area for around a decade. He’s learned a lot about networking in that time. “I guess I was lucky. I picked a nearby data center to house my gear, and there were some regional providers there. Those providers have always gone out of their way to help. They showed me how to register for my own address space, taught me how to advertiese it to them via BGP, and helped me join the local Internet exchange!”
In the Fall of 2021, Ginear’s bandwidth needs were growing quickly, so he decided that he should take a big step forward. “The local guys have been great, but it’s time to work with the real professionals!”
In early October, Ginear contacted a Tier I provider and was in touch with a salesperson by mid November. The order was finalized a short three weeks later after Ginear provided the sales person with his BGP information with the company’s proprietary spreadsheet. “I was used to using the IRR with my regional networks, so this professional document really sold me on how much better this experience would be,” remebered Ginear.
There were a few issues that delayed his order beyond the originally promised date in early January, finally, in April, his circuit arrived. There was a slight delay when the port designations on the paper work and the label on the fiber shelf didn’t match up. In the end, it only took several days of phone calls with six or more departments within the Tier I provider to straighten out the mixup. Once the fiber patch cord as in place, Ginear was jubalent. He was connected to a Tier I provider!
It has been two weeks since the connection started working, and Ginear has been assured that billing commenced. However, the BGP session that he gave information for in December is not in place, so he can’t really use the connection yet. “The activation techs were super professional, and pointed out that their system didn’t show anything about a BGP session. They told me that I could fix things by working with my sales rep, and then asked that I rate them a 5 on the survey I would be sent.”
Ginear has re-sent his BGP information several times to his sales person, and opened a trouble ticket on the provider’s “portal.” So far, he’s been able to send this information to several people within the provider organization as he finds their e-mail addresses. He has also escalated the ticket to level four.
Ginear notes that “back in February, the local providers increased their service to me so that my customers weren’t affected by the delays that the professions had run into. They’re always there for me!”