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BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is the system networks use to exchange routing information, effectively determining the paths data takes across the internet.
Why It's Necessary
The internet is a network of independently operated networks — BGP is how they announce which addresses they're responsible for and negotiate paths between each other.
Why BGP Issues Can Cause Outages
A misconfigured BGP announcement (sometimes called a route leak or hijack) can accidentally or maliciously redirect traffic destined for one network through the wrong path entirely, occasionally causing widespread, visible internet disruptions.
Why This Is Mostly Invisible to You
BGP operates entirely at the network provider level — as a website owner, you benefit from (or occasionally suffer from) BGP's behavior without ever directly configuring it yourself.
