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ISPs are blocking traffic of users with long addresses to prevent clogs.
Internet traffic jams have gotten so bad that some users are getting kicked off the 'Net by their own service provider.
Sprint Corp. confirmed last week it has been blocking some users and Web sites with IP addresses longer than 18 bits to keep router tables from overflowing and its backbone from browning out. Users and Web sites with long addresses assigned by the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC), rather than by an Internet service provider (ISP), are being filtered off the Sprint backbone, said Alecia Cooper, group manager of Internet access services at Sprint.
The filtering applies to commercial, or Class C, IP addresses beginning with a 206 or higher network identification number. Addresses beginning with 207 are filtered if they are longer than 17 bits.
This means those users' traffic, such as...