A guide to Internet "Black Holes", by Palonek. Author of Unix Security Wiki

Black Holes don’t exist just in space, they also exist right here, on planet Earth. I am not referring to micro black holes ether. Instead I am referring to the kind of black hole that is created on the Internet.

What is an Internet Black Hole? It is a glitch in the Internet Protocol usually produced by inexperienced network technicians. Black Holes affect mostly Asia, South America, Europe and now new black holes are produced right here in Canada and United States. As described by the IEEE, Black Holes in the near future will account for the vast majority of business loss next to Internet attacks by hackers. Which brings me to point out that hackers are now creating purposely these holes in the Internet network.

Palonek : The test

1)      Using ordinary tools like ping

2)      Using packet triangulation

3)      Testing for know BGP flaws

The growing trend in outsourcing network management is like trying to put out a fire with cheap wine. It does not work. The eventual price is paid by the companies that are being hosted by such Internet providers. Their websites often suffer from poor ranks in Google, Yahoo, Msn and others that rate network latency (speed of the site).

Palonek’s solution

Simply put, know the company you are hosting with. Ask about network management, down time, service guarantees. Reputable companies will employ domestic engineers to oversee their network, but this drives the price up. So when you pay very little for hosting don’t expect much ether.