Re: draft-ietf-grip-isp-00.txt

[Nevil Brownlee <n.brownlee@auckland.ac.nz>]

Hello Tom:

I'm really delighted to see this I-D; it's taken my short checklist and
turned it into a full-scale document!  Now some comments:

1) The starting point for this document was to give suggestions to
   Internet users as to what they should expect from their ISPs.
   You've expanded it into a much more detailed list, which is a
   little two-edged.

   On the plus side, it gives ISPs (and those thinking about becoming
   ISPs) a very good list of things they need to think about. The second
   paragraph of the abstract clearly says the document is aimed at ISPs,
   and I agree that's what the Working Group is addressing.  

   On the minus side, it's now too long and too complex for 'naive'
   users.  Perhaps it would be good to include an 'end-users checklist'
   as an appendix?  What do other people think about this?

2) Section 5.3 points out the need to use secure channels for
   network management, which is fine.  But in referencing RFC1446 it
   seems to imply that SNMPv2 security is workable - which we know
   is not the case.  Maybe it would be better to make the comment
   that the SNMP folks in the Network Management Area are working 
   on this, and that ISPs need to follow that development ??

3) Section 10.1: A sentence to explain why DNS lookups should not
   be performed on web clients when they connect would be useful.

4) Some of the issues already commented on (on this list) are clearly
   hot topics, e.g. Source Address Filtering and Open Mail Relays.
   One of the aims of the document is to prompt discussion (seems
   to be effective, doesn't it!), but we're clearly not going to
   get consensus on these things any time soon.  I think we should
   summarise such issues, and make the point that they are unresolved
   at the time the I-D is published as an RFC.

Cheers, Nevil

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Nevil Brownlee                       Director, Technology Development |
| Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x8941          ITSS, The University of Auckland |
|   FAX: +64 9 373 7425        Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------C