[arin-ppml] ARIN-2025-4: Resource Issuance to Natural Persons -- Request for Feedback

[hostmaster at uneedus.com]

While having your own ASN is nice, if you only got 2 or three upstream 
providers, that is not really needed. There are ASN numbers reserved for 
such use, much like the wide LAN use of RFC 1918 address space.

However what IS needed in order to have a reliable, multi homed network is 
a block of your OWN network addresses that you can have your upstream 
providers send your data, and having all your network elements on your OWN 
address blocks.  In the longer term, I would like to see proper CPE that 
can obtain IP6 blocks from many providers, and provide proper failover. 
Absent this, that leaves BGP and your own public address blocks.

In most cases, if you are doing this because of a work from home 
enviroment or just the desire to have a reliable and robust home network, 
why should ARIN be able to refuse your resource requests because ARIN 
thinks that ONLY BUSINESSES need them. EVERYONE needs reliable internet 
access, not just businesses.

ARIN needs to ALSO consider there are LEGAL risks of refusal to do 
business with individuals. Many states, as well as the US federal 
government have laws in place LAWS that could consider the refusal of ARIN 
to deal with individuals to be an act against fair trade, or monopoly 
laws.  Unlike individuals, who likely do not have the deep pockets to go 
after ARIN, this is clearly not true for states or the US Federal 
Government.

Today the "Internet" is as essential to many people as electric power. An 
individual's  desire to directly obtain your own internet resources should 
not be considered wrong by ARIN, as they are the only source.

Maybe this should be revised to clearly show that individuals obtaining 
resources for their network, with or WITHOUT the need for an underlying 
business directly from ARIN should be acceptable, and that staff should 
not be taking actions that oppose it, simply because it might make their 
job more difficult. While ARIN may not be able to identify such persons 
with corporate business databases, individuals do have identification such 
as DL's and State ID's as well as Passports and Passport Cards.

ARIN has a monopoly on needed resources in this area of the world, and 
needs to be willing to deal with ANYONE who needs those resources. The 
days of getting a class C of public address space with an internet 
connection subscription is long over.  In fact there are NUMEROUS 
providers, including the home access service of the big 3 mobile carriers 
in fact refuse to provide ANY public IP space with their subscription. ALL 
will BGP to your addresses for a fee, but no longer provide IP4 addresses. 
One of my big jobs of the past was moving a fleet of transit busses to 
IPv6 from static IPv4, because of this very issue.

Thus, the need for the general public desiring their own address space 
is going to grow.

While I have been able to use address space from my business pools, not 
every person has that as an option.  Please do not ignore individual 
networks that need the basic resources that often cannot be obtained at 
ANY price from their upstream.

Lets get away from the business aspect, as clearly as technology evolves, 
the desire to obtain provider independent address space for home 
networking may likely become more of a standard practice.

Albert Erdmann
Network Administrator
Paradise On Line Inc.


On Wed, 16 Jul 2025, Martin Hannigan wrote:

> 
> 
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 10:27 AM William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 6:40 AM Martin Hannigan <hannigan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > This seems like a distraction. Feel free to come to Boston and visit
> > > the City Clerk's office to register your DBA and watch what happens.
> >
> > Hi Martin,
> >
> > Why would I? In Massachusetts, starting a sole proprietorship in one's
> > own name requires no government registration. You only register
> > anything if you want a fictitious name (a "Doing Business As"). If an
> > individual in Massachusetts wants to register for ARIN resources, they
> > identify themselves to ARIN as "Their Name, Sole Proprietorship." It's
> > that simple.
> 
> 
> >https://www.mass.gov/info-details/starting-a-sole-proprietorship-in-massach
> usetts
> 
> Hi Bill,
> 
> You missed a small detail: “You’ll file your business certificate in the
> city or town where your business is located.” (source)
> 
> In practice, the DBA registration and sole proprietorship setup are handled
> through the same process. 
> For example, here’s Boston’s form:https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/file/2025/03/2025-New-Business-C
> ertificate-Form_0.pdf 
> 
> You wouldn't know this unless you actually went to the City Clerk’s office
> or called it and then filed it yourself. The process cost $35 and about two
> hours(there was a validity question regarding the DBA name FOR the business
> certificate).
> 
> The outcome? A registration entry that required full verification of both my
> identity (government-issued ID) and my business (proof of lease, home
> address, etc.). The benefit is the public can hold me or my DBA accountable
> in the event of a civil or other question. The same as having something like
> a Delaware corporation where a registered agent is also required - much more
> expensive.
> 
> I’d wager ARIN spends significantly more than $35 verifying that level of
> detail and it's hard to argue this amounts to an egregious level of harm to
> gain use of ARIN resources.
> 
> YMMV,
> 
> Martin
> 
> 
> 
> 
>