Policy Proposal 2001-1

[Lee Howard]

I'll say again that I don't feel strongly about this.  If we're going to
have an arbitrary size limit on required SWIPs, /28 is just as
arbitrary as /29.  It does seem to beg the question, "What is the purpose
of WHOIS?"  Specifically, what is it about /24 objects that makes them
more useful than /29?  If it's because smaller allocations list the
upstream ISP as the POC, well that's contrary to policy, and I don't think
it's a good reason to change other policies.

As for the fact that manual SWIPs are time-consuming for you and yours,
if I were able to write a Perl script that would automatically send a
SWIP to ARIN based on information stored in a MySQL database, and then
distribute that tool and provide a tutorial at the next conference,
would that be a better solution?  I'm sure every ISP of any size has
some way of tracking IP allocations, but it could be a spiral notebook, 
flat file, MS-Excel, MS-Access, up to an Oracle database.  Would you,
the smaller ISP, be able to take the time to learn, install, configure
and train on a tool like that, and if so, would it save the time you're
losing on /29s?  I won't go so far as to write a web front-end to
allocate IPs and automatically SWIP--it's just too much.

Would it be better to have a tutorial on how to set up and manage an
RWHOIS server?  If RWHOIS could be set up in an hour, and either
queried or mirrored your existing databases (even if it required you
to convert to flat files or something SQL), no updates would be
required by your staff or by ARIN's staff.

I think helping you (and other smaller ISPs) automate is probably a
better solution than moving already arbitrary boundaries.  

Lee

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, David R Huberman wrote:

> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 16:57:28 -0700 (MST)
> From: David R Huberman <huberman at gblx.net>
> To: Lee Howard <lhoward at UU.NET>
> Cc: ppml at arin.net
> Subject: Re: Policy Proposal 2001-1
> 
>  
> > Given that such a policy exists, do we need to alter the minimum SWIP
> > size?  
> 
> I had brought this up for discussion not so much for the privacy policy,
> but because I feel the /29s in the ARIN WHOIS database are mostly "useless
> objects" - in part, due to the policy.
> 
> In an effort to lessen the burden on small- and medium-sized ISPs who SWIP
> manually, and in an effort to lessen the burden on ARIN which manually
> process thousands of SWIPs a day, and in conjunction with my stated belief
> that so many /29s are home networks containing upstream POC information,
> this discussion seemed appropriate.
> 
> /david
>