[db-wg] Change of Country entries in the database

Dear Christoph, all,

On 2003-10-08 18:27:59 +0200, Christoph Mohr wrote:
> Dear colleagues of the RIPE NCC database group!
> 
> I'm using the RIPE whois database in its bulk version ripe.db.inetnum
> for statistical uses while evaluating the netflow data of our border routers.
> What I'm much interested in is the origin of an IP address which I get by
> the country entry of the respective inetnum block of the database.

Let me quote a couple of sentences from one of the most used ripe-dbm
templates:

---quote
The RIPE Network Management Database contains information about IP
address space allocations and assignments. This information also
indicates the country where resources were first allocated or assigned.
However it is not intended that the data be considered as an
authoritative statement of the location where any specific resource
may currently be in use.

Therefore using this information for IP to country mapping may result in
inaccuracies and, as a result, in user's confusion in many cases.

For instance, as the Internet is global, it is easy for users to either
intentionally or unintentionally use IP addresses that have been assigned to
a company conducting business in another region.  For example, a user in
Italy may be receiving ISP service from a company who gets a link to Japan via
a satellite company run out of the US.  Which company has the space
registered depends on their business and networking arrangements.
---end quote

Indeed, because of this reason, it might be good idea to obsolete
"country:" attribute in the inetnums. What do you think about
this? 

In the mean time, of course it is a good idea to keep the available
information as close to the reality as possible. So we will change
NLs to EUs where applicable, for the moment.  Also, if we decide to
keep "country:" attribute in inetnums, then using a code to denote
'the world' sounds like a good idea. According to the ISO pages that
Peter posted, ZZ looks like available for this purpose.

> Therefore, I'm always a bit confused about the many addresses which are
> located in the Netherlands. Since I prefer large inetnum blocks for reasons of
> performance of my software, I often use entries of many C blocks which are
> registered for the RIPE NCC with the country entry NL. In the meantime, I
> already corrected the country entries of some inetnums in my own local copy
> of the database but this is just a workaround which isn't really satisfying.
> So I would like to suggest the change of the country entry of - at least - the
> following inetnum blocks (only inetnum, netname and country entries):
> 
[...]
> 
> inetnum:      145.0.0.0 - 145.127.255.255
> netname:      RIPE-NL
> country:      NL
> proposed country: EU

The above should stay as is, as SURFnet is in NL.

> 
> inetnum:      147.233.0.0 - 147.237.255.255
> netname:      RIPE-ISRAELB-NET
> country:      NL
> proposed country: EU [or IL]

This has already been changed.


Best regards,
-- 
Engin Gunduz
RIPE NCC Database Group