Why does Sprint have address filters again?

Al Reuben alex at nac.net
Sat May 30 03:57:33 UTC 1998


While I agree with both sides of the ARIN argument, I have been silent for
a while, but I have to speak now.

ARIN, the 'American Registry for Internet Numbers', is something that I
have come to fear. It has put an interesting spin on my business.

As a preface to this email, I would like to say that I don't want to sound
like the typical kvetcher (for the non-jews, it's yiddish for 'whiner')
who just likes to complain about things, because they can. I think that we
are beyond that. Anyway... A little history.

nac.net (Net Access Corporation, nothing to do with Avi) was founded in
late 1995. Fortunately, we were multi-homing early, and applies for a
block and got it (after some arguing, which was absolutley justified on
Internic's part) -- 207.99/18. As we filled and used that block, we
requested -- and got with more ease -- 207.99.64/18 (to make for a whole
/17). Time went on, and we filled that one, and requested another /16 (our
1 year estimate), and were turned down, but approved for a /18 --
209.123/18. This all took place before ARIN was actively taking
registrations.

So, recently, we began to get low on space -- we were at about 80 to 90%
utilization. We began the procedure of making sure all SWIPs were up to
date, and proceed to ask for another chunk. This was two months ago, and
to this day, the issue is still unresolved.

My issues are simple. Early on, before I actually experienced what ARIN
could do for me, I was in support of it; RIPE is wildly successful, and
folks in Europe that I talk to are generally very supportive of RIPE or
APNIC, etc, and dealing with them is not a 'chore'. An ISP who is
approaching ARIN for space, especially one who has already rec'd space
over the last 2 years, should be treated with respect. I know this sounds
like a gripe, but the treatment we have gotten from ARIN alone has made
our experiences with ARIN very negative. The attitude of "Why are you
bothering me for address space" permeated the entire conversation. Not
only that, we have moved from IP Address allocation being a 'free' 'in the
extent that you didn't pay the Internic for address space) to a 'fee'
service, and the customer service has taken a severe dive. Not to mention
that fact that response time is horrid; why does it take 48 hours for
responses from ARIN staff? 

My next gripe is the draconian (sp?) measures ARIN takes to make sure that
you are as insulted as possible. My attitude is that we've maintained good
SWIPping policies internal at NAC, and that customers who are assigned
space from us have gotten either just what they need, or a small amount of
growth made upon their representations of needs withing a 6 month period.
We practice policies as much as possible to save address space (like
dynamic addressing at dialup nodes, unnumbering interfaces when possible,
etc.). We reclaim address space as quickly as possible and reuse it when
needed. But, to ARIN, it is though you are 'guilty until proven innocent'.
There is a great deal of time wasted in dealing with ARIN over *very*
simple matters. 

And, the best part about this is that we get to pay now for the lack of
customer service, and we have no choice but to use ARIN.

Next, (as if you weren't expecting to hear this) is the pricing. The fee
structure seems as though it is based upon, "If you have a /14, then you
must be able to afford $20k per year." This is crazy! This is not a
representation of what it takes time wise to review an application! I
highly doubt that ARIN goes over every IP allocation that Sprint or MCI
requests. And, if an ISP becomes stagnant in their requests, then the
entire scheme falls to pieces; let me explain. Let's assume for a moment
that an ISP gets enough customers over time to get a /16. They are billed
$5,000 per year. But, if they become stagnant, and don't require any
future allocations, there is a $5k yearly fee that goes where? For
IN-ADDR delegations? (not to mention that the name servers that do IN-ADDR
are generally on networks that donate the bandwidth, so what really is the
cost to ARIN for IN-ADDR?) I think that the argument overall is that this
fee is collected so that ARIN can afford to pay thier employees to look
over IP requests; but, what if there are no further requests? Why would
that organization have to pay the same as another which is actually
creating a load on ARIN? 

I do believe that ARIN's prices are *way too high* and unjustified, but
without interesting numbers to swallow, it would be impossible to assume.
How does one get a report of what ARIN has registered, what they have
collected? What about a balance sheet?

Mu opinion is that ARIN's policies were shoe-horned into place, almost as
if in hopes that no one was watching. 

Comments are welcome.




> > The drivers license world defrays their fixed overhead costs 
> > across millions of drivers a year who get renewals done - there
> > are not that many ASNs and other things done a day.  Again, as
> > a businessman Karl, you should understand that already.
> 

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                  Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
			 I route, therefore I am.
       Alex Rubenstein, alex at nac.net, KC2BUO, ISP/C Charter Member
               Father of the Network and Head Bottle-Washer
     Net Access Corporation, 9 Mt. Pleasant Tpk., Denville, NJ 07834
 Don't choose a spineless ISP! We have more backbone!  http://www.nac.net
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