This question's been bugging me for a while. I'm finally going to say it - i feel embarassed.

What's the difference in Bandwidth? What is Tier1? Why would Cogent be bad?

Any answers are appreciated.

Darren

Any answers?

Well working backwards, people say Cogent is bad because they have had problems with them. The problems are latency and uptime. Some people will swear by them others will not. Cogent, by far, is probably the cheapest of the bandwidth providers.

A Tier 1 provider is an ISP which is connected to the other Tier 1 providers which is the true backbone of the internet. Basically there are the Tier 1 providers who are connected to each other and everyone connects to them.

The difference in bandwidth can mean a lot of things. It can be the difference in terms of speed (T-1 v. D-3, where D-3 handles 45 Mbps v. 1.5 Mbps for the T-1) or it can be in terms of how much traffic you can handle each month (i.e., you can move 300 GB per month for your website). It can also mean the quality of the bandwidth--e.g. NTT/Verio versus Cogent; one is expensive compared to the other. What makes it more expensive--the network, redundancy of connections, the size of the provider's lines, your contract rate.

Does this help?

I know the whole ds3, etc, but i was hoping to learn more about NTT/Verio, Cogent, Level 3, etc. Which should i be looking to use?

Darren

Cogent's peering isn't all that great. That's what I've been hearing.

Originally posted by dherman76
I know the whole ds3, etc, but i was hoping to learn more about NTT/Verio, Cogent, Level 3, etc. Which should i be looking to use?

Choose Internap, and you will be very happy! :)

Cogent's peering is bad, and only seems to be improving slowly.

Personally I wouldn't use Cogent for normal bandwidth. I would much prefer to choose a tier 1 provider, such as AT&T or Level3 and rest in the knowledge that customers from certain areas will not have problems accessing sites.

Your best choice would be to look for a multi-homed solution though, where there are a number of BGP routed providers. Going single homed is just asking for trouble.

Cogent is unstable.

I don't recommend

Yes, multihomed or stable was proved isp good choosing.

I have used Cogent for a few months and did not have the greatest time with them. We had a lot of problems around New York or Washington where traffic would not get through and then we would see 10Meg to 98Meg peaks on the mrtg graphs for a few minutes as though there was a blockage that just got cleared. We have just switched to Aleron and for the past 3 - 4 days there isnt a single thing like that... but... it's only 3 - 4 days with Aleron so who knows?

I wouldnt use Cogent for any thing thats important.

Thanks!

What are you looking to do?

Call me crazy, but isn't a Tier 1 provider someone who provides top level support?! Like it is their equipment?:eek:

Who you should be chosing depends on what your needs are. If you need a lot of bandwidth at a really low cost and quality isn't paramont, then find yourself a good cogent provider. Some may require high uptime and a bullet proof SLA, then you need to be looking towards a provider like Internap. In reality your budget, needs, and target market determine who you should be hosting with.