Trip Manager Connectivity Recommendations (Trip Manager is powered by Worldspan)

Internet Connectivity

· Worldspan uses AT&T and UUNET in a dual-provider configuration for Internet backbone connectivity. BGP (Boarder Gateway Protocol) peering arrangements are in place between Worldspan, UUNET and AT&T. Worldspan products support only IBM compatible machines.
· Customer ISP connectivity to either AT&T or UUNET provides optimal connectivity to Worldspan e-Commerce products by utilizing a single provider's backbone. Using alternate ISPs may require interconnectivity at public peering locations and can interject significant transit delays.
· If an alternate ISP is required, verify with the provider that they have strong peering arrangements with AT&T or UUNET, preferably using private interconnects. The best alternates are ISPs who are customers of AT&T and UUNET. Upon request, a prospective ISP should supply you with their peering arrangements. Buyer beware!
· Customers should have SLAs with ISPs, which provides for less than 150ms response times across the ISP backbone.

Customer Network

· Proxy server configurations should be optimized per vendor specifications. It has been noticed that configurations that BYPASS caching for Trip Manager tend to have the best results when accessing Trip Manager applications, as this preempts the proxy server attempting to fill a browser request from its local cache instead of reloading from the Trip Manager server. This is also true for other caching devices. A single firewall passing http and https should not cause a problem.

· If connectivity to the Internet is attained via multiple proxy servers or firewalls in a load-sharing configuration, Worldspan recommends forcing connectivity to Trip Manager through one specific device, with failover to other device(s), to avoid the situation in which TCP connections are routed asymmetrically through multiple devices. Contact Worldspan Network Engineering for assistance.

· Bandwidth requirements should be correctly engineered and frequently monitored for utilization trends. There should be an average of five workstations per 56k of bandwidth and no more than two concurrent. The maximum access bandwidth utilization is 70% because the optimal performance decreases rapidly as the average bandwidth utilization reaches between 60%-70%.

· Customer local and core networks should be error-free and provide for clean routing to the ISP.

· Ensure that the current release of your browser is installed (Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher and Netscape Navigator 4.77 or higher are currently supported). If a proxy server is used, the browser's advanced proxy settings should be configured to bypass the proxy server for Trip Manager. In current versions of Internet Explorer, these settings can be found at tools/Internet Options/Connections Tab/LAN Settings/Advanced. In the exceptions box, *.tripmanager.com should be entered.

· Ensure any content filter is turned off for www.tripmanager.com. This can slow the response time for Trip Manager.

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