** ANNOUNCE -- New RADB Fee Structure **

Craig Labovitz labovit at merit.edu
Tue Oct 26 03:07:31 UTC 1999




RADB Fee Structure
------------------

Since 1995 Merit Network, Inc., has operated the RADB Internet Routing
Registry as a free service to the community. Initial funding for the
service came from the National Science Foundation as part of the
Routing Arbiter project. In recent years, donations from a number of
commercial Internet providers provided continued support for RADB
operations. As Internet Routing Registry technology has matured, the
RADB service has experienced explosive growth.  Today, the RADB
database handles well over a million queries a day from several
thousand unique Internet end-sites.

This growth in RADB usage, including a dramatically increased volume
of email and telephone calls to the RADB help desk, has placed
significant demands on RADB staff and equipment resources. In an
effort to maintain the high level of RADB service as well as encourage
the migration to a distributed database, Merit has implemented the
following RADB fee structure:

  Beginning November 1, 1999, Merit Network, Inc., will begin charging
  RADB users a $200 yearly fee per maintainer object registered in the
  RADB Internet Routing Registry database. 

  Credit card payment must be made by all RADB maintainer object 
  owners within 60 days. Unpaid maintainer objects and all related objects 
  will be disabled from the registry. 

  Internet providers may register via the web by reading and accepting the
  Internet Routing Registry Maintainer Object Agreement, 
  <https://www.radb.net/radb/agreement.html> and then by supplying 
  the appropriate payment information. 


  IMPORTANT: The registration fee for Internet providers PEERING with Route
	     Server Next Generation <http://www.rsng.net> machines at the 
	     PAIX, Mae-East, Mae-West, AADS and PacBell exchange points 
	     is included as part of the RSNG service at these exchanges. 

	     Providers peering with the RSNG route servers at one or
	     more of these five exchange points do *NOT* need to submit a 
	     $200 payment for any maintainer objects registered 
             with their autonomous system number in the RADB. 
		  


Alternatives to Registering in the RADB
---------------------------------------

As an alternative to the RADB, Internet providers are welcome to
maintain their own local registry. Several groups, including Merit
Network, have recently developed RPSL-capable Internet Routing
Registry database servers. These *FREELY* available IRR server daemons,
including IRRd, provide a simple mechanism for providers to maintain a
mirror of Internet registry data and a local repository of customer
routing information.

As part of the transition to RPSL and RPS-DIST, Merit now strongly
encourages RADB users to begin operating their own local routing
registries. Merit will continue to freely mirror and permit mirroring
by other local ISP registries.

For more information on running your own IRR registry, see:

	http://www.irrd.net
	http://www.ripe.net/db
	http://www.isi.edu/ra


As an alternative to the RADB or running a local registry, RADB users
may also choose to register in several alternative IRR
databases. Several providers, including Cable & Wireless and Bell
Canada, offer IRR registration service for their downstream
customers. For a complete list of participating Internet Routing
Registries, please see 
	http://www.radb.net/list.html.


More Information
----------------

For more information, please see the RADB web page at
	http://www.radb.net

Or feel free to send email to db-admin at radb.net




-- 
Craig Labovitz	
(425) 605-4296 (office)
(425) 936-7329 (fax)




More information about the NANOG mailing list