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| What is BGP and how to stop Facebook from working? |
Yesterday, all Facebook services completely crashed. The interruption lasted more than six hours. This incident does not happen often. The blackout affected Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus VR.
Many reports have explained the reasons for this failure. On the other hand, some sources said that it was the result of a large-scale hacking attack on the company. But this is not the case. The main reason for this is that there are problems with DNS addresses for Facebook services and apps.
The main cause of the problem is a change in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) used by Facebook and thousands of other companies that direct traffic (called traffic) to the correct location on Facebook's servers.
What is the BGP protocol?
BGP is one of the most important protocols used to regulate Internet traffic. It is responsible for sending user data packets to the relevant server and vice versa. To illustrate its functions, the system is referred to as the "postal system" or "traffic control authority".
But a more accurate and simple description is that this is a group of people who organize business cards for certain places and direct travelers to those places.
When it comes to this protocol, the Internet can be described as a huge collection of interconnected networks. These networks are connected to each other depending on the service provider. With large websites and platforms like Facebook, it is difficult to connect these networks seamlessly.
Due to the size and complexity of the system, any problem will have a very large impact. This bug affects all of its users.
On the other hand, BGP can be described as an intermediary between connections. For example, if you are using an internet provider called DecadeConnect and want to visit a website that uses an internet provider called NetSend, communication between service providers cannot take place without this protocol.
As mentioned earlier, this protocol is used to define the simplest and shortest data path between any network and another network. This allows users to use the Facebook service in this case with the highest possible performance and the least loading time.
Facebook has stopped
In the particular case of Facebook, Facebook does not use this agreement with a particular service provider. Instead, it uses its own design protocol. Therefore, it is possible that the service will be shut down due to repeated human error while updating the company agreements.
In fact, the company stated and stated that the problem was due to "changes in traffic routing parameters within the network, including all company data centers".
This problem may have another dimension related to Data Name Servers (DNS) addresses, a function of routing traffic. Quite simply, the DNS function tells the browser its destination when entering a link to any site, and then the BGP protocol plays an additional role, which is to determine the shortest path to this destination.