Hi All, Currently ( all? ) the NZIX route servers insert the exchange ASN into routes that are advertised to the route servers. The exchanges that we peer with overseas such as Any2 in LA, Equinix Sydney and NSW-IX plus the new AKL-IX exchange do not insert the exchange ASN into advertisements, so all else being equal the paths from those exchanges are shorter than routes from APE and WIX by one AS hop. There are other NZ networks like us that peer at APE and/or WIX and also peer at overseas exchanges and to have optimal traffic flows with them, we put in one off hacks per network. The least ugly ways of doing this for us work fine but create per peer config that must be maintained. Ideally we can put bilateral peering up at APE and WIX so that the extra AS hop goes away but sometimes bilateral peering is impractical due to the other networks peering policy. I can't think of a reason why putting the exchange ASN in the path helps anyone. Is this just a hangover from the old days? Or is there some legitimate reason that it should be like this? Cheers, -- Lincoln Reid Head of Networks ACSData - AS18119 lincoln(a)acsdata.co.nz Phone: +64 4 939 2200 Fax: +64 4 939 2201