I've noticed that there are a lot of friendly 'shell access' exchange deals between dutch network operators. This makes it easier for parties to debug network issues and troubleshoot 'from the outside'. A point of view outside your network is absolutely essential, seeing what others see is a useful thing with a variety of network problems. Well known examples are 'it works for even numbered ip address, but not for odd numbered ip address via this and this route'.
To encourage and provide a streamlined way of cooperating I introduce the "NLNOG RING". In essence the deal is very simple: you donate a machine to the ring, and you gain access on all servers which are part of the network, hence the name "ring".
A great example would be to launch a traceroute from 10 servers in different networks and quickly get the results instead of waiting till somebody has the time to run some tests for you.
A non-exhaustive list of people involved in designing and managing the nlnog ring project: Peter van Dijk, Teun Vink, Edwin Hermans, Martin Pels and me.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards,
Job Snijders job@snijders-it.nl http://snijders-it.nl/pgp/ http://snijders-it.nl/job-snijders-public-ssh-key.txt