Re: Hurricane Electric ISP custom routing via BGP communities

[Peter Potvin via NANOG <nanog () nanog org>]

Speaking from personal experience here, the $200/month extra I was quoted
by an HE sales rep in the past was only for local-pref modification
communities within their own network. It seems the *only* other action
community they support is RTBH which doesn't at all compare with what other
tier 1 providers support when it comes to being able to (at least
partially) control where your traffic goes or doesn't go.

Kind regards,
Peter


On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 10:04 AM Jim Troutman <jamesltroutman () gmail com>
wrote:

> It always amazes me how far many Internet engineers, peering coordinators
> and other buyers will go to haggle every last nickel on the costs of
> circuits, crowd connects, space and power. Of course, everyone wants a fair
> deal and a fair price, myself included.  But all this infrastructure costs
> real money to operate.
>
> HE is nearly always the least cost transit provider in the markets they
> serve.  I think that making a lower profit margin makes it difficult for
> them to justify investing in the staff time and tooling for BGP communities
> when the vast majority of their customers don’t care about it at all.
>
> $200/month extra for BGP community support in the context of what the
> large “tier 1s” are charging for transit seems reasonable to me.  If you
> need it, you actually need it and should pay.  And based on my past
> experience, the HE NOC response and personal attention will be superior to
> nearly anyone else.
>
> Also seems a better value for money than the absurd cross connect pricing
> found almost everywhere, unless you meet in the street.
>
> Jim Troutman,
> jamesltroutman () gmail com
> Pronouns: he/him/his
> 207-514-5676 (cell)
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 08:18 Mehmet <mehmet () akcin net> wrote:
>
> > There are a lot of great ISPs with full bgp communities support. Just use
> > them.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 4, 2024 at 08:02 Edvinas Kairys <edvinas.email () gmail com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > Has anyone tried to use Hurricane Electric ISP custom routing via BGP
> > > communities ?
> > >
> > > I thought that a provider with such a Tier would allow customers to
> > > influence inbound (to customer) routing using additional BGP communities.
> > > But seems they don't have free service for that, they're offering $200/mo
> > > fee per session to make the custom communities work.  I'm shocked:)