[ncc-services-wg] Complaints about becoming a new LIR

Hello!

I just got a new LIR for one of my employer, everything was quick and fine ;)

Of course, every work need some experience. LIR is a status giving you an 
ability to assign IP addresses to users. It is like registrar in domain name 
system. So if you need to provide that kind of service - you need experienced 
people can do all technical work, isn't it? I think generally that is not a 
work of network admin at all.

Often LIR is misunderstanding with a block of IPs and AS. If you just need 
that, you don't need to become a LIR. It is like if you want to have 
mycoodlomain.ru, you don't really need to become a .ru registrar to register 
that domain by yourself.

> Have any of you recently tried to become a new LIR?!  I am helping an
> organization become a LIR and they pointed out many items that I think the
> RIPE NCC needs to take account of.  Here is what they are doing:
>
> 1) User goes to www.ripe.net
>
> 2) User clicks on 'membership' in left panel
>
> 3) User now goes to http://www.ripe.net/membership/
>
> 4) User now clicks on 'become a member'
>
> 5) User now on http://www.ripe.net/membership/new-members/index.html
>
> 6) User now clicks on "Updated Procedure for Becoming a New RIPE NCC LIR
> [08 June 2004]"
>
> 7) User now on
> http://www.ripe.net/membership/new-members/new-form-20040608.html
>
> 8) User now clicks on "More information on the new LIR procedure can be
> found here."
>
> 9) User now redirected to https://lirportal.ripe.net/newmember/index.html
>
> 10) User clicks 'I agree' at bottom
>
> 11) User now starts online application at:
> https://lirportal.ripe.net/newmember/MemberApplication.html
>
> 12) User now supplies name and email and clicks next
>
> 13) User now is asked for lots of legal info and clicks next
>
> 14) user is now asked for lots of billing info and clicks next
>
> 15) User is now asked for registry data and clicks next
>
> 16) User is now asked for mailing list subscriptions and clicks next
>
> 17) User is asked to provide remarks and clicks next
>
> 18) User now can submit the form
>
> Now imagine a network admin is asked by his/her company to become a
> LIR.  He/she has never worked with RIPE.  They follow the process and get
> to step 13.  They stop what they are doing and contact their bosses and
> lawyers about filling in the legal info.  They accumulate the answers after
> a few phone calls and emails and now move inward to step 14.  Now they call
> the accounting dept and get the necessary info to complete this
> screen.  Hit next.  Now they call the head of the IT dept and ask who
> should be added as a contact person.  Hit next.  Whoops.  Now I need to
> know who from the IT dept should be getting local-ir and ncc-co
> emails.  Call back IT dept head.
>
> Confused yet?  RIPE-303 which is now obsolete, but was the last available
> 'Procedure for becoming a LIR', states in section 2 that one has to sign an
> official contract with RIPE:
> http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/service-agreement.html  (ripe-320).  RIPE-320
> is *not* obsolete, so I guess one does have to, but the new Lirportal
> procedure makes no reference to it at all (steps 1-18).  Since ripe-303 is
> obsolete, a new user would normally not read it and therefore would not
> know about ripe-320.
>
> IMHO, the entire new LIR procedure has been made very cumbersome and
> non-intuitive and has not been reviewed for user friendliness.  Previously,
> with ripe-230, one had all the info needed in one spot and could see very
> clearly what info and data from within the company is needed to become a
> LIR.  Nowadays, it is a 3 day job just to figure out what the LIR portal
> will be asking along the way.
>
> I think that the RIPE NCC has to revise this entire procedure from the
> ground up.
>
> Regards,
> Hank Nussbacher

-- 
WBR,
Max Tulyev (MT6561-RIPE, 2:463/253 at FIDO)