The Internet service provider Sprint has depeered USF’s Internet service provider Cogent as of around 6PM this evening. Because of this, any single-homed Sprint customer will be unable to reach USF and vice versa. Some Sprint sites may be reachable via our Internet2 commercial peering service, but unfortunately not all sites. If you are having problems reaching a particular Internet site, it is very likely on Sprint’s network. We have contacted Cogent’s NOC and they’ve said this is being handled at the highest levels in the company, but there is currently no ETA for when peering will be restored. We will post additional information as soon as it’s available.
For more information, please see this article from Earth Times or a very thorough blog entry from Renesys.
On 9/1/2008 at 10:30AM, USF established a temporary peering relationship with FLR (Florida Lambda Rail) giving us access to Sprint via FLR’s Internet connection. This peering will remain in place as long as Sprint and Cogent continue this dispute. As of right now, Sprint has chosen to temporarily reconnect to Cogent so that customers of both ISP’s can reach each other. But, since Sprint says this is only temporary, we will keep our peering with FLR in place as a backup.