Re: Accounting and power cycles.

Victor Muslin (vmuslin@wp.prodigy.com)
Tue, 14 Nov 1995 22:56:31 -0500 (EST)

> I'm working on a new Radius daemon, and as I read and reread the
> accounting draft, the following scene keeps slapping me in the face.
>
> a) Customer with a pay-by-hour account signs on.
>
> b) Radacct starts an invoice for the customer session.
>
> c) PortMaster freezes for some reason. (All non-trivial systems
> contain bugs after all.)
>
> d) Shop lacky power-cycles PM.
>
> e) Invoice is never brought to a close and session billing skyrockets.
>
> f) Customer notices billing discrepancy, and hauls said dude to
> court. Alternatively, long sessions are written off for several
> customers, and ISP loses significant revenue.
>
> Is it just me, or do people think the PM should send some unforgeable
> message on each power cycle. I have suggested a protocol, however I
> never received a reply from Livingston. What is the appropriate manner
> for suggesting additiond to the RADIUS Accounting draft?
>

Yes, I raised this issue on the list and with Carl in private e-mails
a few times (and suggested possible protocol modifications to plug up
the holes). We are concerned about this as well. There are ways to
minimize the impact, but no absolutely "bullet-proof, air-tight" way
to plug up the holes with the current protocol. I hope this issue will
be discussed some more soon.

In one of the previous messages syslog was mentioned. While this may
work with Livingston portmaster, it is by no means certain that every
NAS writes to syslog. This is a PROTOCOL issue.

Regards,

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