On Tue, 19 Dec 95 17:32:28 -0500 you said:

But I DO NOT want a continous service form DE-NIC except 3 lines in their name server configuration file. EVERYTHING else is handled by us.

Besides (I know this is impossible) but I would realy like to see the figures you mentioned. Here is a little calculation (remember we are talking maintenance not setup):

Change of Name Server Address per year: 2 Amount of time for change in name server config: 5 min. each ---------------------------------------------- 10 Minutes (1/6 Hour)

For you it is 10 minutes but for 80% of the people it is about 30 minutes and often more. "Hello, I'd like a domain name." "Ok, what is your primary and secondary DNS?" "My what!!??" explain, explain, explain, "But all I want is tada.co.cc! I don't have a Unix system or Windows NT. I am dialing into crISP and I don't want to be user@crISP.net" and on and on and on. And if you are not polite and helpful, you get a lawyers letter for "denial of service" and "monopolization". So NICs have to *average* out the time spent. Not all users are as up to date as you are. Lastly, the entry in root does have a processing effect. If you are a popular site in the world, and everyone wants to get to www.tada.co.cc then the root DNS will have to service those requests. Now add up a few thousand DNS entries just like yours and the Unix system needs a memory upgrade. After 3 years it needs a complete overhaul. Who pays for the new hardware? So when doing you calculations, figure on 30 minutes and the deprecation costs of a Unix system. Incidentally, in Israel, where we started charging for domains back in October 1994 (before everyone else realized it was necessary) we set the fee at $50 - one-time and have stuck to it so far without a problem.

One Hostmaster Hour 150 US$ ---------------------------------------------- variable Costs 25 US$

Additional Costs per Entry 100% (should cover non technical tasks) non-variable Costs 100% (access to net, host cost a.s.o)

---------------------------------------------- accumulated Costs 75 US$

The RIPE Staff should have a better view on what a hostmaster hour is worth and how much Name-Server changes there are per domain and year. The 100% are from my good old economics professor at the university.

Greetings Max Gutberlet

Hank Nussbacher