MCI position on Class C...

[Michael Dillon]

On Thu, 6 Feb 1997, The Innkeeper wrote:

> I thought I would send this response to the list since we received a
> position from an MCI person...I thought you folks might be interested....

Not particularly, *sigh*, read on...

> >Steve,
> >You must get the addresses from the internic now.  We do not provide class
> c's
> >anymore.  This info and much more is listed on the MCI web page
> >www.infopage.mci.com.

Just the teensiest bit of Internet enabled research would have allowed you
to determine that this host does not exist. And the teensiest bit of extra
effort would have taken you to http://www.infopage.mci.net where you would
find a link labelled "Request Internet Address Space".  After reading the
page at that link and finding no mention of the supposed MCI policy you
might have been further inclined to check the first link on that page
which was this phrase "how MCI reviews the IP network requests". Having
thus satisfied your curiosity about MCI's published policy, you would have
been forced to conclude that the MCI employee you were talking to was
likely a janitor engaged in scraping paint out of all the power outlets
that he had painted over the preceding day. 

I can understand that as a BBS sysop you might not fully understand all
the ins and outs of the Internet, however I fail to understand how you
could hope to function as a business person when you display such an utter
lack of communications and commerce skills. And in order to assure the
other list members that I am not merely being harsh and unforgiving, let
me explain so that you may learn.

When communicating with suppliers, customers and any governmental
authorities under whose jurisdiction you fall, it is imperative to verify
the information you receive. In this case, you could have checked the web
page, you could have requested a signed and written confirmation from the
MCI employee, you could have even spoken to another MCI employee such as a
supervisor or another salesperson. In this case the mistake doesn't have
lethal implications for your business, but should you be applying the
incorrect tax collection policy based on an unrecorded phone conversation
with some anonymous person purported to work for the state taxation
authority, then you might find otherwise. This is basic business common
sense and I am surprised that any ISP would not know and practice these
basic rules.

> This came direct from MCI folks....

This only goes to show that not all MCI folks are quite up to the caliber
of Vint Cerf...


Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com