[lir-wg] AS Number Policy - continued

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 at 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 at consonet.com
mnt-by:       DRNT-SP
changed:      shai at 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 -