Hi,
In my case, I have 6453 and 174 for transit. I want to get to 577
which is directly connected to 6453 and 174. 577 has a higher local
pref on paths via 174. Short of shutting my 174 session (or some
deaggregation), I dont have a way to influence how 577 gets back to
me. I can easily exit out 6453, but it does nothing for the return
packets. I have enough capacity on 6453 to handle all my traffic,
but its a Draconian step to take and some traffic via 174 is fine and
would be worse if I fully shut the session. (ie. peers of 174
in Toronto)
That's because Cogent has chosen to not give us the BGP communities
needed to influence traffic destined to you from their other peers.
They're one of the providers I use and I just turn them off when they
are having issues. With Level 3, for example, I can path prepend to
just certain remote AS's, etc., it's nice to have that control.
Dave
Actually, in my case I dont think it would help because 577 has some sort of paid agreement with teleglobe and probably a very cheap (or even zero $$$) agreement with Cogent. So I dont think they would let me influence their exit path to make them pay Teleglobe more money 
But yes, community tickery can be quite helpful, but it wont always do the trick.
---Mike
Actually, in my case I dont think it would help because 577 has some sort of paid agreement with teleglobe and probably a very cheap (or even zero $$$) agreement with Cogent. So I dont think they would let me influence their exit path to make them pay Teleglobe more money 
Since AS577 keeps coming up in this discussion. They certainly could have adjusted their routing during this event if they felt their customers/business were being negatively impacted.
If it didn't meet that threshold, who are we to judge what is good for their customers/business??
The Internet is not something you can provide total quality assurance on
while many organizations have various definitions for words like "total", "quality", and "assurance".
Deepak
Hi,
I am not judging them at all. Its all from my perspective--- me me me me!!!
I am just trying to do the best for my customers and make a decent ROI for the business with the resources I have-- just like they are. From Bell's perspective, getting to relatively small networks like mine dont even register on their radar. I am just trying to do the best I can within the constraints of how routing works, and the tools I have available to me.
---Mike