Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, BGP.exchange membership and tunnels are free of charge, local and/or physcical connection is dependend of our partner.
We do not ask for any credit card information or personal data. All you need to register is your own ASN, prefixes, email and password.

BGP.Exchange is represented in many locations around the world. Feel free to check the portal for current locations and try a connection there. You are missing locations? Then write to us!

At this current time we support GRETAP, VxLAN and ZeroTier, but we are planning to add more protcols once we have launched the application portal version 2.0. Some of the protocols we are thinking about adding are GRETAP (IPv6), VxLAN (IPv6), Geneve (IPv4), Geneve (IPv6), L2TPv3 (IPv4) and L2TPv3 (IPv6).

At this current time we do not support reverse PTR records, but we are planning to add this feature once we have launched the application portal version 2.0 and we have switched our exchange prefixes/ranges to our own owned prefixes where we have more control over then the current onces we use.

We original started as a fully virtual exchange only offering tunnel connections, but as the exchange grew bigger and we had more partners willing to support local/physical connections. We now are calling ourself a hybrid exchange since we offer a mix of local vlan connections, physcical switch ports and tunnel connections.

Note that not every connection has local vlan and/or physical capabilities and this is all depending on the partner or the location. Some locations are still exclusive virtual exchange and only support tunnel connections.

Since we are a non-for-profit organization we only can exist by the grace of our partners, donations and the work of the team members. To releave some of the stress and recuperate some money we put in yourselfs, we offer members the ability to rent IPv6 prefixes from us. Look at it as a form of donation where you also get something usefull back for it.

Yes, partners can ask for a setup fee (NRC) and/or a monthly fee (MRC) for cross-connections, ports and/or local vlan. However most partners have chosen not to ask for any fee for local vlans when this is paired with an other service they provide. Cross-connections may differ from datacenter to datacenter but most partners just ask the datacenter price without any overhead. For switches most of our partners use the "bring your own optic" option or a setup cost for the optic if they need to provide it.

BGP.Exchange will forward your request to our partner (or multiple depending on location) and they will contact you back with the various options and pricepoints. You are responsible for arranging and paying for the cross-connect directly to our partner.

An Internet Exchange (IX) or Internet Exchange Point (IXP) is a virtual, hybrid or physical infrastructure which lets Internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks (CDNs), and other network providers exchange Internet traffic with each other, typically on a cost-neutral basis. Being connected to the infrastructure allows each network to connect to other networks and share traffic (also known as “peering”). This reduces costs for the networks because they do not need to pay for upstream/transit on all of their Internet traffic. Having direct access to the infrastructure and to the networks you want to peer with reduces latency by reducing the length of the path that traffic needs to travel. In the end, an IX increases the resilience of the Internet by providing many more redundant routes for traffic, allowing congested routes to be avoided.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a routing protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information between Autonomous System (AS) networks. BGP manages how data gets delivered between networks. AS networks have BGP-speaking routers that advertise or announce to other BGP-speaking routers they are connected to (called neighbors) the prefixes of IP addresses that they can deliver traffic to. BGP routers then use decision-making algorithms and policies established in AS-peering agreements to analyze the data they gather via the prefix announcements and choose which peer is best to send each packet of data to at any given time.

Generally, the fastest path with the fewest number of network hops is selected. Once the data moves across an AS and reaches another BGP router connected to a different AS, the process repeats itself until the data reaches the AS where the destination site is located.

An Autonomous System Number (ASN) uniquely identifies every network on the Internet. An Autonomous System (AS) is a group of IP networks operated by one or more network operators, with a single and clearly defined external routing policy. The ASN both identifies the network and enables it to exchange routing information with other ASes.

Every Internet service provider (ISP) requires their own ASN, but also the individual organizations that connect to the Internet through an ISP require one. After an application from an organization, ISP or other entity has been approved, ASNs are assigned by regional Internet registries. Any network that wants to peer at a public Internet Exchange must have a public ASN.

To peer at an Internet Exchange, you need an ASN, which you can request at one of five regional Internet registries. BGP.Exchange itself does not offer consulting services to accompany the process of getting an ASN, but if you have any questions, feel free to approach us at support@bgp.exchange. We can either assist you or recommend someone who can.

Latency is the delay between a user action and the response to that action from a website or an application in networking terms, the total round-trip time (RTT) it takes for a data packet to travel. It is measured in milliseconds and Internet quality depends on it, the lower the latency, the better the user experience.

Interconnection is a connection between two or more parties in order to exchange data. In the context of telecommunications, interconnection is a physical link between either a carriers network and a datacenter, or a carrier or ISP and their customers, or between multiple carriers, datacenters, ISPs, enterprises etc. But when you look at it not only from the physical point of view, it becomes much bigger: Interconnection stands for “being connected”.

Physical connections to BGP.Exchange PoP require a single-mode private interconnect (aka cross-connect or in-house cabling). A cross-connect is a dark fiber point-to-point interconnection. It is used to access the physical switching platform.

Cross-connects are handled by your partners and/or the datacenter, please look at the portal to see what location are available for local physical connections.

A route leak is the unintended and unauthorized propagation of routing information beyond its designated scope in a network's Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) (or similar routing) configuration, leading to traffic being misdirected.

This typically occurs due to accidental misconfigurations, where an Autonomous System (AS) announces routes it should not or fails to properly filter routes it receives. Route leaks can result in internet outages, traffic black holes (where data goes nowhere), eavesdropping, and security vulnerabilities.

PeeringDB is a nonprofit, member-based organization that facilitates the exchange of user maintained interconnection information, primarily for peering coordinators and Internet Exchange, facility, and network operators.

Having a well maintained PeeringDB entry is a must-have for all networks engaged in interconnection, especially for all peering administrators. It gives you information about networks and shows other networks who might be interested in peering with you the basic data they need to know.

If you do not have an entry yet, you can register here for free. If you already have one, we recommend checking your entry from time to time to make sure it's up to date.

Peering is the exchange of data on a cost-neutral basis. All kinds of networks like carriers, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and network operators need to exchange data in order for the internet to work. The data exchange is either agreed on a bilateral payment basis (for transit/upstream) or on a cost-neutral basis (peering).

IP transit is a service where a network pays another network for internet access (or transit), also known as upstream. Peering is when networks exchange traffic between each other freely (settlement-free), and for their mutual benefit.

If you want to know which networks you can reach at our locations, you can search for a company name or AS number or you can check the list of connected networks for each location directly.

Please be aware that not all ASNs are available on the route servers and have a strict or closed peering policy.

Peering offers many benefits, and in general, looking at both quality and costs, it makes sense to peer. But at which Internet Exchange and/or location? This question pops up soon after you have decided to peer.

If you have an open peering policy it is always adviced to directly connect to the route server(s).

The amount of prefixes you can advertise depends on your own max prefix limits you set on peeringdb. However we have a set max-limit for new users or users that have not filled in the peeringdb values.
If you run into the problem of some or all your prefixes being filtered please contact us so we can increase your max-limit if needed.

Currently we do not support downstream support and/or as-set filtering, prefix announcements are only allowed from you own ASN at this present time. However we this will be availble in our application portal version 2.0.

Yes, we filter on RPKI, for now we only filter the invalid prefixes but we want to see a future where we can switch to strict RPKI filtering.

A bogon prefix is a route that should never appear in the Internet routing table. A packet routed over the public Internet (not including over VPNs or other tunnels) should never have an address in a bogon range. These are commonly found as the source addresses of DDoS attacks.

Bogon filtering filters bogus (fake) IP addresses of a computer network. Bogons can be filtered by using router access-control lists (ACLs), or by BGP blackholing. Full bogons filtering is recommended and enabled by default.

BGP.Exchange advices members using peering to follow the NL-NOG BGP Filter Guides.

Blackholing is a security measure for protecting a network against a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The method allows packets to a specific network to be “dropped” so that they do not reach the recipient and overload their resources. The network under attack can announce the affected prefixes as blackholes by using the BGP BLACKHOLE community. BGP.Exchange offers Blackholing at most BGP.Exchange locations free of charge.

A blackhole is a prefix for which all destination traffic will be discarded.

The amount of blackholes is included in the maximum number of allowed prefixes.
This means: (standard prefixes + blackholes) < maxpref.

The blackhole can be as specific as /32 (IPv4) or /128 (IPv6).

Many peers do not accept IPv4 prefixes more specific than /24 and IPv6 prefixes more specific than /48. Please ask your peers to accept more specific prefixes.

Please check if your blackhole announcement has been accepted by the route servers. You can check this in the application portal or looking glass. By entering the blackhole prefix into the global search field, you can get an overview of the networks announcing this blackhole prefix, as well as the route server(s) and therewith the location(s) where the prefix is visible at.

No, Blackholing is free of charge for all members.