Czech network update, Cisco bug slow global Internet
A highly unusual network-configuration update by an inexperienced administrator at a small DSL provider in the Czech Republic last Monday choked Cisco Systems Inc. routers around the globe, slowing worldwide Internet performance for about an hour.
According to officials at Renesys Corp., an Internet monitoring company, a network administrator at SuproNet Spol. SRO in the Czech town of Uherský Brod triggered the problem when lengthening the so-called autonomous system (AS) path that users follow to the firm's Web site. The AS path was several orders of magnitude greater than necessary, noted Earl Zmijewski, vice president and general manager at Renesys.
Zmijewski said a bug in Cisco's Internetworking Operating System makes its routers susceptible to very long AS paths.
