Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 13:32:30 -0800
From: "Jeffrey I. Schiller" <jis@MIT.EDU>
To: Douglas Guthrie <dguthrie@broadband.att.com>
Cc: "Sullivan, Peggy" <PSullivan@broadband.att.com>, jis@MIT.EDU
Subject: MIT <=> AT&T Broadband difficulties
Message-Id: <20001214133230.E577@localhost.localdomain>
References: <5B6BBEB325D8D2118F7E0008C7CF74ED047F78C4@neexch02.mediaone.com>
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In-Reply-To: <5B6BBEB325D8D2118F7E0008C7CF74ED047F78C4@neexch02.mediaone.com>; from PSullivan@broadband.att.com on Thu, Dec 14, 2000 at 02:22:25PM -0500
Status: O

Mr. Guthrie:

I am MIT's Network Manager. MIT has a direct OC3 connection to AT&T
Broadband. This link was installed by and belongs to AT&T (formerly
MediaOne Road Runner) to provide fast and reliable access to MIT so
MIT Faculty and Staff, many of which are AT&T Customers would have
good Internet access to MIT. In addition all AT&T Customers would have
better access to those Internet resources hosted by MIT. This
arrangement has been in place for a number of years, almost as long as
MediaOne has been offering Cable Modem service.

Until recently the link has been very reliable. Furthermore what
problems did occur were quickly and competently dealt
with. Unfortunately this has not been the case for the last several
months. About two months ago or so we had a problem where the link was
operational, but not being used by AT&T to route traffic to MIT. Our
outgoing traffic was routed via the link, but the return path to MIT
was via the commodity Internet. This trouble took almost a month to
get fixed. First it was hard to get the Road Runner NOC to even
realize that we had such an arrangement and then it was hard to get in
contact without someone who understood Internet routing and then it
was even harder to obtain understanding that we had a problem that
needed to be fixed!

Our current troubles are more straight forward. The link is just plain
down. As of this writing, the link has only recently been restored,
after around 6 days time. This trouble was ticket number 37302.  Our
faculty were very very unhappy both with my organization and with
yours during this timeframe.

Your name was provided to me by Peggy Sullivan (her message below)
after she was contacted by Jerry Saltzer, a member of our faculty. She
recommends that we have a meeting. However I am traveling this week in
San Diego and am therefore not immediately available. Perhaps what
really needs to happen is for our organizations to figure out a
problem reporting mechanism that results in a more timely resolution
of problems. Do you believe a meeting will help?

			-Jeff

On Thu, Dec 14, 2000 at 02:22:25PM -0500, Sullivan, Peggy wrote:
> Mr. Shiller: I am a Manager of Government Affairs for AT&T Broadband and I
> am working with Professor Jerry Saltzer on a matter relating to the City of
> Newton. He brought the problems relating to AT&T's circuit between MIT and
> the Internet to my attention. I contacted Doug Guthrie, Director of
> Broadband Internet Services, and he suggested that a meeting or conference
> call take place between MIT and AT&T to discuss this matter further.  Mr.
> Guthrie's contact information is as follows:  
> 
> Douglas R. Guthrie
> Director, Broadband Internet Services
> Boston 
> dguthrie@broadband.att.com
> 978.258-4320 Voicemail
> 
> Please contact him at your convenience to arrange a meeting time. Thank you.
> 
> Peggy Sullivan
> AT&T Broadband
> Manager of Government Affairs
> 95 Wexford Street
> Needham, MA 02492
> (781)449-7080, Ext. 3005
> psullivan@broadband.att.com
> FAX (781)455-8693
> 
>    
>