At 03:17 PM 05-08-02 +0200, Kurt Erik Lindqvist wrote:
--On Monday, August 05, 2002 14:52:13 +0200 Sebastian Willing <s.willing@mops.net> wrote:
ASs allocated to RIPE: 6016 ASs unassigned: 616 ASs singlehomed: 224 ASs unused: 1526
Sebastian, this is a good excersie!
However, if we really have 25% of the AS:es assigned to RIPE not visible in the Global routing table, I think we have a problem....
As someone who actively goes after unused ASNs as well as single-homed ASNs, I would say the toughest problem is RIPE itself. Here are some examples: --------------------------------------------------------- Example #1: ASN returned 2/2001 and not reused. It took a few emails on my part to "convince" RIPE to reuse it, as they did finally in 6/2002:
Dear Hank
We have taken AS8885 back, however we cannot re-assign it as it is referenced in another object in the RIPE Database.
There is no reason that that entry be in the database since Doarnet has not existed for the past 2 years and I doubt they have paid their RIPE dues for the past 2 years. Proof: they no longer are listed as a member: http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/mem-services/general/indices/IL.html
What procedures does RIPE use to reclaim IP address space that has been assigned and no longer is used?
-Hank
Incidentally, they reclaimed the ASN from this bankrupt ISP but have not yet reclaimed the IP address space from this defunct ISP: inetnum: 212.77.128.0 - 212.77.129.255 netname: DOARNET-IL descr: DoarNet Internal Net. country: IL admin-c: SP401 tech-c: SP401 rev-srv: dns.doar.net rev-srv: dns2.doar.net status: ASSIGNED PA notify: shai@consonet.com mnt-by: DRNT-SP changed: shai@consonet.com 19990201 source: RIPE ----------------------------------------------------- Example #2: ASN removed by one hostmaster and reassigned to a new organization and then along comes another hostmaster and does:
Thanks for your message about the deleted and unused AS number AS6875.
Unfortunately, we cannot return it to the pool of unused AS numbers at this time because it still has one peer.
Here is the data from http://www.ris.ripe.net/cgi-bin/asinuse.cgi=20
full url below:
(http://www.ris.ripe.net/cgi-bin/asinuse.cgi?as=3DAS6875&display=3Dpeer&int= erval=3Done&outype=3Dhtml&.submit=3DSubmit)
"AS6875 was last announced on Thu Jul 18 16:37:57 2002 (UTC). 1 peer are fo= und for AS6875.
Neighbor of 6875 Last Seen AS Path 9004 Thu Jul 18 16:37:57 2002 13129 8220 12761 9004 6875"
Do you know anything about this?
I had to go explain that AS6875 was already returned, reassigned and has already established a new peer session with AS9004. ------------------------------------------------- Example #3: Company owning the ASN is bought out, no longer needs the ASN, but it is protected via "auth:" with one of email|crypt-pw|md5 which is no longer known. This then requires for written hardcopy, quoting from hostmaster:
Changing the authorisation of a maintainer object means changing sensitive user data. In cases when our manual intervention is necessary we require written hardcopy confirmation from the maintainer's admin-c which serves as a form of authentication and authorisation for the change.
So before we can change your maintainer for you please send us a fax stating the reason for the change and full text of the old and then new object. The fax should be on the headed paper of your company, signed by the admin-c of the object ...
I was lucky to find someone in the new company who joined in the email ping-pong marathon with RIPE, typed up the letter on company letterhead, faxed it to RIPE (4x until RIPE accepted it), and then finally I was able to change the entry and then delete it. And I was lucky on that one. If the company had gone bankrupt or just shutdown, and the autnum entry were "auth" protected, and there would be no "admin-c" to speak to, I do not know what RIPE would end up doing. You really see LIRs investing a few hours of work every time they try to be "good to the Internet" to return a defunct ASN and battle with RIPE hostmasters every step of the way? My experience is that returning things to RIPE is just as hard as trying to get a /16 for a new ISP :-). So Kurt, you are absolutely right that "we have a problem" with 25% unused RIPE assigned ASNs. -Hank
- kurtis -