Level 3/COgent problems

Cogent and Level 3 are having a slap fight with each other
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/68198
It's affecting my ability to use Rubberslug under normal conditions. I'm using a web proxy server to get this through, but thought I might bring it up here to let it be known that a bunch of users are probably being left out in the cold because of it (if I hadn't spent an hour or two tracking down this problem today, I wouldn't know what the problem was or what to do).

Wait, so is *this* why I couldn't see this web site and Anime News Network on the same days and other people could?

I think at some point my traceroute goes through Level 3 going to Houston... which may explain why some people never had any problems and others had no chance to ever see it.

Maybe? I'm not a network person. I was under the assumption this whole time is was some other stupid technical failure at the data center.

It does appear that Roadrunner (Time Warner) was affected by this nonsense.

I've heard about it. But what's the real deal about it, I didn't understand much from the sites complaining about it. So do they kind of like, "rule" the web and can influence/comprimize how all other sites work? Sorry, I'm a zero at such things. Enlighten me.

Earthlink Detroit seems to be working now, but that doesn't guarantee everywhere is; Earthlink's Denver area network was working before Detroit, so it's possible that my complaining on DSL reports actually bore fruit locally. It's also unclear if this is kludge by Earthlink or if it is's a general backbone workaround (or solution).

And yeah, it kinda seems like the Tier 1 providers can just pull the plug on everyone if they want to.