[Tfug] Changes to Dakotacom's network

[Chris Hilton]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 05:01:39 -0700
"Adrian" <choprboy@dakotacom.net> wrote:

> On Thu, 11 Jul 2002, you wrote:
> > On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 00:28:30 -0700
> > "Adrian" <choprboy@dakotacom.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > Hey all,
> > > 
> > > Just got a notice from Tyler (that went out to all Dakotacom
> > > subscribers)that Dakotacom is changing their network this Friday.
> > > Dropping several dialups and creating others on different numbers.
> > > Seems to be very short notice.
> > > 
> > > In addition, Dakotacom is changing their nameservers to a new IP
> > > range. Did a quick check and it's currently assigned to Time
> > > Warner Telecom. Anybody know if Dakotacom is poised to go down the
> > > RoadRunner sewer? I thought Dakotacom was doing well, anybody know
> > > what's up? Tyler, care to give us a technical explaination?
> > > 
> > > Adrian
> > 
> > Adrian-
> > 
> > Dakotacom is owned by Worldcom right? 
> 
> Since when? I thought Dakotacom was owned by one of it's original
> founders (I've forgotten her name), who bought it back and turned it
> around after it had become a spam factory in the n96/97 time range.
> Since when does Worldcom own it? I can't find any such information and
> the corporation papers say it's a foreign LLC, thru Edwardsville, Il.,
> the agent is John Ahrar, though that's dated 1996.
> 
> [dig, dig, dig]
> Here it is, Pamela Crim owns Dakotacom according to a May 2002 Tucson
> Citizen article. It's dropped off the current articles, but you can
> pull it up thru Google here:
>  http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:aTawScn0h9IC:www.tucsoncitizen.com/business/5_27_02biz_week2.html+dakotacom+Pamela+Crim&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
> 
> One of the reasons I chose Dakotacom as an ISP was that I thought it
> waas locally owned and operated. Glad I'm not totally incompetent...

OK.  I was pulling this one out of my butt.  Thought I remembered
reading that MCI had gobbled up Dakotacom a few years ago.

> > And isn't Time/Warner one of
> > Worldcom's biggest customers?  I think WC is TW's ISP, so to speek. 
> 
> No, TW 's ISPs are AOL and RR, not WC. TW may get a bunch of physical
> dialup lines from WC, but they don't rely on them for ISP services.

Actually they are.  WC and AOL inked a deal in 2000 that has gradually
made it so.  I guess ISP may be the wrong way to describe it.  AOL (and
Time/Warner and Bank of America, etc) provide services to you and I
using WC's equipment, bandwidth, etc.

> > So
> > WC probably owns/operates the servers you're 'dig' ing at. 
> 
> Doubtful, I queried ARIN. The only connection Dakotacom has to TW I
> can find is that one of the outgoing links is TW.  But most traffic
> seems to go out the Alter link, not TW.

ARIN will tell you who the IP's are allocated to, but not who actually
owns the equipment, bandwidth, etc that are using the IP's.  I have a
small block of IP's assigned to me.  I don't show up in ARIN's lists. 
As Tyler confirmed in his post, the telecom industry is incestuous,
Dakotacom is no different.

-C-