Text 10420, 60 rader
Skriven 2013-09-24 20:58:20 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Snooze article (repost from last year)
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           RIPE is out of IPv4 addresses.
           By Michiel van der Vlist, 2:280/5555


RIPE-NCC (Réseaux IP Européens - Network Coordination Centre) Is the Agency
that issues IP addresses for Europe and the Middle East. It is located in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Last Friday, 14 September 2012, they announced they have begun to allocate IPv4
addresses from the last /8 of IPv4 address space that they hold. So contrary to
what the title of this article suggests, they have not completely run out yet.
The policy for assigning IPv4 address space has changed drastically though. In
the past RIPE-NCC members could apply for address space when needed and as much
as they needed for the coming months. From now on each member can only get a
one time /22 allocation (1024 addresses) if they already have an IPv6
allocation. That's it, no more.

What it boils down is that except for the one /22, European ISP's will have to
make do with whatever IPv4 addresses they still have on the shelve. Will it
affect Fidonet? In the long run for sure. When an ISP runs out of IPv4 space,
new clients will get a globally unique IPv6 prefix, but regarding IPv4 the
following things may happen:

1) New clients won't get an IPv4 address. Period.
2) New clients will get an IPv4 adress in the private range e.g 10.x.x.x.
3) New clients can get a globally unique IPv4 address for an extra fee.

As for existing customers, they may be allowed to keep an existing IPv4
address. Or if the ISP goes for option 3, existing customers may also have to
pay extra or let go of their globally unique address. Time will tell.

If you are put behind a NAT you can't run a server answering to an IPv4
address. So if you want to continue with Fidonet over IP as a sysop, it has to
be over IPv6. Option 3 may not be all that attractive as the fee will probably
be quite high. Not so high as to be a problem for a large or medium sized
company, but prohibitively high for most indviduals.

So in the long run Fidonet will have no choice but to go IPv6. How about the
short run? We will probably not be in trouble in the immidiate future. It
depends on how fast the internet is growing. In Western Europe Internet
penetration is high, the majority of households has a wide band connection, so
there will be limited growth in that section. In Eastern Europe it may be
different. Plus that mobile internet is still booming all over the world. I
have two SIM cards from different networks for prepaid mobile internet. One
(KPN) gives me globally unique IPv4 address, albeit a dynamic one. The other
one (Vodaphone) gives me a private IP address in the 10.x.x.x range. Not much
of a problem for me, as I do not plan to run mobile servers and a point system
works al right behind NAT.

Fidonet may not be affected for a long time. Or maybe some of us will be
effected quit soon. We just don't know. What we do know is that the times that
everyone can have a globally unique IPv4 address are over.


¸ Michiel van der Vlist, all rights reserved.
Permission to publish in the FIDONEWS file echo and the FIDONEWS
discussion echo as originating from 2:2/2

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