In message <69356E02-5194-4E73-BCBB-1AAC74737E71@gmail.com>, Suresh Ramasubramanian <ops.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
Porcine aviation is eminently possible too, I expect.
Well put sir! That having been said, there quite certainly *are* two specific /24 blocks, routed by AS201133, which appear on the following page annotated with the Belizian national flag, thus presumably indicating their geographical assocition with that country. http://bgp.he.net/AS201133#_prefixes The reason HE.net associates these two blocks (86.106.93.0/24 and 93.115.38.0/24) with Belize is quite obviously because the relevant RIPE WHOIS records for the blocks themselves indicate current residence within those blocks of a corporation which itself claims, within relevant RIPE WHOIS records, to be domiciled within Belize, i.e. Fast Serv Inc. aka QHoster.com. Interestingly however, traceroutes to addresses within said 2 blocks appear to dead end rather closer to Romania/Bulgaria than to Belize... ============================================================================ % traceroute 86.106.93.5 ... 11 ae-3.r00.buchro01.ro.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.235) 213.313 ms 212.371 ms 210.541 ms 12 83.217.231.35 (83.217.231.35) 245.623 ms 220.157 ms 225.047 ms 13 178.132.83.102 (178.132.83.102) 216.657 ms 219.868 ms 225.156 ms 14 * * * 15 * * * 16 * * * ============================================================================ % traceroute 93.115.38.9 ... 11 ae-3.r00.buchro01.ro.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.235) 211.870 ms 206.528 ms 214.324 ms 12 83.217.231.35 (83.217.231.35) 220.968 ms 221.491 ms 230.588 ms 13 178.132.83.102 (178.132.83.102) 223.166 ms 221.899 ms 219.994 ms 14 * * * 15 * * * 16 * * * ============================================================================ For the time being, we can skip over this fact, and we can likewise skip over any and all questions that might arise from the clear discrepancy between the apparent actual physical locations of both Verdina Ltd. and Fast Serv Inc. and their equally apparent choice of Belize... a country with a zero corporate tax rate and no requirement to divulge the identities of beneficial owners, even to the government... as their preferred "on paper" corporate homes. What I personally have somewhat more difficulty just skipping over, is the question of why a Belizian corporation found it either necessary or useful or appropriate to obtain its one and only AS number from RIPE... an RIR which quite clearly is not in the business, as far as I know, of granting number resources to Central American users. In short, why didn't this self-identified *Belizian* company, Verdina Ltd., obtain an AS number from LACNIC? And conversely, why did RIPE, and/or any of its LIRs, deem it appropriate to grant one of RIPE's limited supply of AS numbers to a self-identified *Belizian* company, particularly when this was the company's first, last, and *only* AS number? Wouldn't a LACNIC-issued AS number have done just as well? If not, why not? It is that last set of questions that concerns me most on this particular day. Today, unlike tomorrow, I am looking past all of the obvious questions that arise from the discrepancy between Verdina Ltd's and their "customer" Fast Serv's claim of Belizian origin and their quite apparent actual physical residence in Bulgaria. Today I am not even questioning why these two companies might both have gone to some lengths to avoid having the identities of their actual owners revealed, either to the governments involved, or to their respective tax authorities, or even to the RIPE community. And finally, today I am not inquiring into the set of circumstances that caused Fast Serv Inc. aka QHoster.com to become... as it is today... one of the preeminent hosters of malware-distributing web sites in the entire known Universe. No. Today I am only curious about how this Belizian company came to have its own RIPE-issued AS number, you know, as opposed to an LACNIC-issued one. If anyone would like to take a shot at explaing that to this particular euro-ignorant troglodyte, I would be happy to have them do so. Regards, rfg