IPNmoo

CAIDA's networked collaborative environment, IPNmoo (Inter-Provider Notification MOO (object-oriented multi-user domain), is a text based object-oriented multi-user domain (MOO) provided for real-time network management, operation, analysis, and research discussions.

IPNmoo - CAIDA's networked collaborative environment, is a text based object-oriented multi-user domain (MOO) provided for real-time network management, operation, analysis, and research discussions. (It's just an on-line chat room type of thing, `IRC-but-less-annoying'?) CAIDA (sponsored by NSF via NLANR), in collaboration with Merit/IPMA's IPN (Inter-Provider Notification project, also sponsored by the NSF), is offering IPNmoo as a tool for the ISP community to use for real-time interaction during diagnosis and repair of network problems. The terms and conditions for use both tools are (from Merit (Craig/Susan)):

IPN has access restrictions to encourage providers to share technical information, framed by the assumption that regular sharing of engineering information on externally visible problems/maintenance will lead to a more stable, healthier Internet.
Providers have expressed concern that their outage/maintenance information could be used by competitors to gain an advantage. The below terms attempt to limit misuse of outage/maintenance engineering information.

IPN membership is limited to major Internet service providers who BGP peer with other providers at one or more "major" exchange points.

ISP agrees to make good-faith effort to share scheduled maintenance and ongoing outage information. The primary focus of the tool is the communication of major outages/maintenance visible to other "core" Internet providers.

ISP agrees not to redistribute IPN information and to use the information for the sole purposes of operations/network management.

If a majority of IPN participants believe a provider has not acted in good-faith with regards to the above criteria, the majority can elect to exclude that provider from the IPN.

CAIDA (Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis) is a proposed effort to promote greater industry cooperation in architecting and managing the Internet. It seeks to address global engineering concerns that are highly dependent on cross-ISP coordination. This includes efforts to:

identify, develop and deploy measurement tools across the Internet;
work with commercial providers to provide them with a neutral, confidential vehicle for data sharing and analysis;
provide networking researchers and the general Internet community with current data on Internet traffic flow patterns;
assist in the introduction / deployment of emerging internet technologies such as multicast, IP v.6, web caching, bandwidth reservation protocols, etc.; and
enhance communications among commercial Internet service providers and the broader Internet communities.

IPNmoo is available for ISPs to share information on scheduled and unscheduled outages. ISPs have expressed concern about the possibility that their outage/maintenance information might be used by competitors to gain an advantage, and IPN makes a strong effort to limit the misuse of outage/maintenance engineering information. IPNmoo reflects similar philosophy. To also maintain a strong focus on inter-provider issues, accounts are limited to network engineers or administrators of ISPs with at least two distinct BGP peering sessions with other ISPs. Selected researchers or representatives of user groups may have accounts as approved by IPN's administrative team.

The primary focus of the tool is to provide a vehicle for real-time interaction to resolve network difficulties. We also strongly encourage the use of the moo as a vehicle to deploy current versions of important network-friendly software (e.g., bind, ftpd, inn, mrouted, squid). As stated in the terms and conditions below, IPNmoo users must not redistribute IPNmoo information beyond that needed for operations/network management. If a majority of participants believe a member has not acted in good faith, that majority can elect to exclude that provider from IPNmoo.

Experienced M* users (denizens of previous multiuser online environments) should feel free to extend the MOO, adding useful objects at their own discretion. More information on MOOs and MOO-like infrastructure, including user and programming manuals for the less experienced, are available on the web: