Hi, On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 11:00 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi, How does one get connected to KIXP
One usually needs an Autonomous System Number (assigned from AfriNIC, the RIR for the African region) and a block of IP addresses (usually from same registry).
and what are the charges,
http://www.kixp.or.ke/index.php?Itemid=22&id=10&option=com_content&task=view shows what the costs are. It took ~10 seconds for me to find, a good example of local content. we run a
website, yes locally hosted, but unfortunately the experience is different depending on the ISP the client is connecting from, at times we have noted traffic being rerouting through the international link because a particular ISPs KIXP pipe is full.
It may not be the case that a "pipe is full", probably more likely due to routing issues. First place to troubleshoot is the ISP that connects the hosting provider to KIXP. So for example: $tracert www.propertykenya.com Tracing route to www.propertykenya.com [196.216.64.233] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 62 ms 3 ms 3 ms 192.168.1.1 2 74 ms 80 ms 60 ms 41.206.46.10.accesskenya.com [41.206.46.10] 3 55 ms 59 ms 59 ms fe-01-kixp.accesskenya.com [196.207.31.78] 4 66 ms 59 ms 59 ms fe-01-kixp.accesskenya.com [196.207.31.78] 5 57 ms 84 ms 50 ms 198.32.143.72 6 73 ms 74 ms 59 ms 80.240.192.193 7 67 ms 50 ms 89 ms 217.21.112.1.swiftkenya.com [217.21.112.1] 8 53 ms 59 ms 79 ms 196.216.64.233.swiftkenya.com [196.216.64.233] Trace complete. In other words, I get to websites hosted in Ke across the KIXP mesh easily, YMMV. I don't understand your statement that "TESPOK does not really want new entrants". Of course they want more members, then they are a stronger association. I'm not sure I would have limited peers at KIXP to licensed providers, but maybe that is a gov't requirement, just guessing. As far as bandwidth per peer to the IX, this isn't normally made available by any IXP (that I know of) anywhere. The most you are likely to get is something like this: http://stats.uixp.co.ug/. While KIXP peers have decided NOT to make this data publicly available, the aggregated traffic stats have recently been made public at http://www.kixp.or.ke/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=34 That service is currently down, but I know they are working on it (I witnessed them beavering away on that very server earlier this week). IMO, you don't need another neutral IXP (we have two at 3 locations), as in the case you are discussing, there is never a guarantee that traffic will stay local. For example, when I lived in Holland and would request a web page elsewhere in the EU, that traffic would sometimes go across the Atlantic and back, despite a much more interconnected (via IXPs) ecosystem than what we have here. In any case, traceroute is your friend in this situation. -- Cheers, McTim "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there." Jon Postel