Category: Network news

‘Selfish’ routers slow the Internet

That’s the conclusion two Cornell University computer scientists came to after finding that computer networks tend to be “selfish” when each tries to route traffic by the fastest pathway, causing that path to become congested and slow.

If the routers that direct the packets of data could be programmed with some altruism, the information might be able to reach its destination a little faster while allowing other packets to also move more quickly.

Eva Tardos and Tim Roughgarden described their work last Friday in a talk titled “Selfish Routing and the Price of Anarchy,” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver. Their presentation was part of a symposium called “Game Theoretic Aspects of Internet Computation” which explores the application of economic principles to the Internet.

A packet of data has many ways to reach its destination and relies on the routers it encounters to direct it. Routers today, the computer scientists said, have several means to decide which way to send the information. They might send out test packets and time them. At other times, the routers might exchange information about the condition of networks close to them. More often than not, the router will choose the least congested path until it, too, becomes clogged. At that time, the router will settle on a previously neglected route.

The system will eventually stream to an equilibrium that mathematicians call a Nash flow, which is usually slower than an ideal system. The researchers constructed a mathematical analysis of how routers direct packets and found that the average time of travel increased by up to 1.33 times compared with an ideal system.

Adding more interconnected pathways to the network can also be counterproductive because of an effect called Braess’ paradox, the researchers said. According to the paradox, the packets of information would simply hop from one path to another–much like drivers switching lanes in a traffic jam–actually slowing down all the other packets traveling on those pathways.

To improve how routers direct traffic, Roughgarden suggested they consider not only which route is least congested, but also how sending packets in that direction would affect that path. Being more altruistic, a router in some cases may end up choosing pathways that are not necessarily the fastest, which could still result in lower average times for all the transmitted data.

The scientists said these mathematical analyses are based on hypothetical networks. “The extent to which the real Internet conforms to these mathematical models is not yet well understood,” Roughgarden said.

Symantec warns of router compromise

The security company said it was the first time he had seen an attack “in nature,” although the concept was discussed last year by researchers at Symantec, according to a blog post at Symantec.

In the attack, which targeted users of an undisclosed Mexican bank, the intended victims received a spam email claiming that he had received an e-card, directing them to gusanto.com, a Spanish-language e-card site. However, email has also incorporated the HTML tags of images, containing an HTTP request to get the router to change your DNS settings, according to the manager of Symantec in the UK quality assurance, Thomas Parsons.

Get-HTTP request redirects traffic flowing over the router to an IP address when the user attempts to access six domain names that are related to banking. Symantec calls ZDNet Asia sister site ZDNet UK did not publish the IP address.

The attack is possible due to an exploit cross-site scripting in 2Wire routers that was reported in August last year, according to Symantec. Parsons said it was “just a gimmick,” advising small and medium sized companies to change the default security settings on routers, and educate users about clicking on suspicious links.

ReadyRouter.com not replace the routers configured with the spare

A niche service a few years ago, former Cisco Systems channel guru Tom Stevenson conducted a national campaign to convince the housing by pushing dealers to sell the value. Barry Bisson was present in one of Stevenson’s whistle-stops and took his message to heart.

The result is ReadyRouter.com, a San Francisco firm that specializes in the replacement of routers not configured with a spare. Bisson idea comes from his experience as chairman of CDN Networks, a provider of raw Cisco. “In the CRC, I have much experience with Cisco equipment configurations and manipulation,” he says. “I started to realize some of the difficulties of trying to keep up to date settings, and when a router fails, get the information you need to be.” Bisson had found their niche value.

Thus, in June 1999, Bisson left CRC, increased seed and began to lay the technical foundation for ReadyRouter.com, which began formally in September. Bisson is president and CEO of the implementation. company’s basic premise is that Cisco routers do not fail often, but when they do, the task of making a setting distance is long and expensive. Bisson estimated that the router network failures and generate another $ 500 million in support costs not provided for each year in the U.S.

Go Configure To address this issue, ReadyRouter.com maintains a secure, Web-based repository of client configurations on the router. usefulness of the software company ReadyRetriever maintains current shell, providing periodic snapshots of client configurations. Thus, when a customer router goes down, ReadyRouter. com you can leverage your repository to reconfigure a replacement unit.

The company sends configure routers through the air the next day but also offers four-hour levels of service and configuration only. The service for four hours is based on the Cisco SMARTnet program on-site maintenance. The configuration service is only designed for clients who have a hot spare ReadyRouter but want to keep and update their router configurations.

Bisson provides your company offers as a complement to the Cisco SMARTnet maintenance. The services are targeted to organizations with multiple remote sites, such as companies with numerous branch offices or remote work linked to a private corporate network.

In the case of four-hour service, prices start at $ 150 per year per unit.

What’s in it for you?

ReadyRouter.com services’ s are sold only through authorized Cisco distributors. The company has so far registered 130 distributors in 20 countries. Clients range from six-person shops to international service providers such as Getronics, according to Bisson. He says his company is negotiating an agreement with Tech Data Corp., in which the provider offers services such as SKU ReadyRouter.com available to its distributor customers.

Symantec warns of router compromise

The security company Symantec has warned of an attack involving the subversion of routers.

The security company said it was the first time he had seen an attack “in nature,” although the concept was discussed last year by researchers at Symantec, according to a blog post at Symantec.

In the attack, which targeted users of an undisclosed Mexican bank, the intended victims received a spam email claiming that he had received an e-card, directing them to gusanto.com, a Spanish-language e-card site. However, email has also incorporated the HTML tags of images, containing an HTTP request to get the router to change your DNS settings, according to the manager of Symantec in the UK quality assurance, Thomas Parsons.

Get-HTTP request redirects traffic flowing over the router to an IP address when the user attempts to access six domain names that are related to banking. Symantec calls ZDNet Asia sister site ZDNet UK did not publish the IP address.

The attack is possible due to an exploit cross-site scripting in 2Wire routers that was reported in August last year, according to Symantec. Parsons said it was “just a gimmick,” advising small and medium sized companies to change the default security settings on routers, and educate users about clicking on suspicious links.