Multihoming sites and ARIN

[Dennis Ferguson]

> > Secondly, I would hope that most, if not all, ISPs are checking WHOIS to verify
> > the address space actually belongs to their customer before they route it.
> 
> This sounds like backtracking on the notion that ARIN is intended to be
> independent from ISPs and their routing policies.

This sounds like trying to have the cart lead the horse.

The only value that getting address space from ARIN, or any registry, has
is that they associate your name with the address space in a database.  The
entries in the database are the only things the address registry controls.

Having your name in a database is by itself worthless (from the amount
of spam mail I get I can tell my name must be in a lot of databases, none
of which have provided me with any value).  The sole value of having your
name in an address registry's database is that ISP's sometimes consult
address registry databases when configuring their routers, and having
your address space routed on the Internet (or not routed on the Internet,
at your choice) is of substantial value.

So the value of an address registry, and of the addresses provided by
that address registry, derives solely from the entirely voluntary use
of the registry data by ISPs.  It is hence hard to see how an address
registry could do anything independent of ISPs and their collective
routing policies (as opposed to individual ISPs and their individual
routing policies, which the registry must remain scrupulously independent
of if they are to continue to enjoy wide support), and entirely
understandable that a registry operator would very much wish that ISPs
would use the data.

Dennis Ferguson