Regarding the constant pinging by Akamai Technologies against random blocks of IP addresses, it's only going to get worse. They were mentioned in an article in the 10/21/99 edition of the Wall Street Journal in a section known as the Technology Journal in a column called Under The Radar. The article is about a new breed of Internet delivery providers competing to deliver streaming media to the masses. Firms mentioned include iBeam Broadcasting, SkyCache, Broadcast.com, RealNetworks, and Akamai Technologies. Here's a direct quote from the article. "Akamai Technologies, Cambridge, Mass., has placed more than one thousand servers at about 40 data centers of Internet carriers to speed up any kind of Internet data." I'd say that besides using the ping results to help in compiling an optimal delivery map, they're also building a comprehensive marketing database. Just my two cents worth. Greg C. Harald Koch wrote: > > In message <380E13E0.E4166BFFat_private>, Eric Toll writes: > > Let me know if you like this idea, or if you think I'm insaine on this. > > There's alot more of these coming; see attached for another example. > > -- > C. Harald Koch <chkat_private> > > "It takes a child to raze a village." > -Michael T. Fry > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > Subject: [Fwd: [tepat_private: It's a product, it's supposed to do that]] > Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 20:49:06 -0700 > From: David Ambrose <stargazer1at_private> > Reply-To: unix-athomeat_private > Organization: @Home Network > To: Unix at home <unix-athomeat_private> > > Got this from a friend. How obnoxious can you get? > > Tom Perrine wrote: > > > > Folks, > > > > About a month ago we started getting reports of ISDN lines staying up > > for 7x24. And my own ISDN line started doing the same thing. I tried > > rebooting the pipeline router, disconnected from the home net, and the > > line would come back up immediately. > > > > The home router (not any of the hosts behind it) was being ping'ed, on > > average about every 2-3 minutes, from anywhere between 2 and 4 hosts > > out on the Internet. > > > > All the signs pointed to an attempt to mount a "cost them some money" > > attack on us. The source IP addresses would change, the DNS PTR > > records were missing or pointed to names similar to those used in > > dial-up pools, the source machines were locked-down in some ways, wide > > open in others (typical script kiddie box). > > > > I finally started calling the source ISPs, with an offer to help them > > find the intruders. The response was scary: > > > > "It's supposed to do that, it's a product." > > > > This company, Akamai Technologies, is trying to calculate optimal and > > efficient paths for "guaranteed and optimal delivery of Internet > > content". > > > > To do this, they pick thousands of IP addresses at random, and then > > ping them every few minutes. Forever. Once they find you, they never > > stop until you complain. I pointed out that random pinging could cost > > other people money, and they said they had had complaints but they > > always promptly removed addresses from their lists. > > > > Sounds just like the excuses the SPAMers use, to me. > > > > For now there are just a few nets where these things live, but I think > > that the boxes will soon be sold to anyone who wants to deliver > > "content". > > > > While I agree that this is possibly useful research-like stuff, their > > cavalier attitude about "target selection" and being responsible for > > the losses they cause has put them on my "target selection list." If > > they want to measure RTTs across the net they can either deploy their > > own d*mn boxes, or at least get permission from the target, or take > > some due diligence steps to make sure they aren't crossing any "pay > > for play" network links. > > > > They cost us some money in ISDN bills, and labor hours to track them > > down. The "don't have a position" on whether or not they will pay for > > financial losses they cause. They'll be getting a bill anyway. The > > local FBI office and the local DA are both convinced that there is a > > good case for any number of violations of CA state and/or Fed law, if > > losses are incurred through the negligence of Akamai. All we have to > > do is decide to press charges. > > > > I'm going to see what their response to the billing is. We'll take it > > from there. > > > > Here are some of the IP addresses that you may see this ping traffic from: > > > > 206.132.160.42 > > 209.67.231.* > > 216.32.65.143 > > > > Some of the addresses have PTRs, and some don't. Some are in > > akamaitechnologies.com and some are in globalcenter.com. > > > > Some folks may want to block traffic from their nets at border > > routers. We *had* left ping open on our ISDN routers because there > > was some small value in it, but we'll be closing that soon. > > > > *sigh* > > > > --tep
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 13:44:48 PDT