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RFC 2901
Network Working Group Z. Wenzel
Request for Comments: 2901 J. Klensin
FYI: 37 R. Bush
Category: Informational S. Huter
Network Startup Resource Center
August 2000
Guide to Administrative Procedures of the Internet Infrastructure
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document describes the administrative procedures for networks
seeking to connect to the global Internet. This includes the steps
and operations necessary for address space allocation and
registration, routing database registration, and domain name
registration. The document also contains information about the
required forms and how to obtain them.
Table of Contents
Who Should Read This Document ................................... 2
Checklist ....................................................... 3
Prerequisites ................................................... 3
I. Preparation of Systems and Network Planning ............... 4
A. What do I need to connect to the Internet? .......... 4
B. What connectivity medium should I choose? ........... 4
C. What else do I need to do? .......................... 4
D. How do I get the documents referred to in this guide? 6
E. Section References .................................. 6
II. Address Space Allocation .................................. 7
A. Who is my upstream provider? ........................ 7
B. How much address space should I ask for? ............ 8
C. What is CIDR? ....................................... 9
D. How do I request and register address space? ........ 10
E. Section References .................................. 13
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III. Autonomous Systems (AS) ................................... 13
A. What is an ASN and do I need one? ................... 13
B. How do I register an ASN? ........................... 14
C. Section References .................................. 15
IV. Routing and Exchange Points ............................... 15
A. Do I need to register with a routing database? ...... 15
B. What about CIDR and routing? ........................ 16
C. How do I choose a routing database? ................. 16
D. How do I register in the RADB (The Americas)? ....... 17
E. Section References .................................. 18
V. Domain Name Registration .................................. 18
A. What is a country domain? ........................... 18
B. How do I register as a country domain? .............. 18
C. What if my country is already registered? ........... 19
D. How do I resolve a country domain name dispute? ..... 19
E. Section References .................................. 19
VI. IN-ADDR.ARPA Domain Delegation ............................ 19
A. What is an IN-ADDR.ARPA domain and do I need one? ... 20
B. How do I register an IN-ADDR.ARPA domain? ........... 20
VII. Security .................................................. 21
A. Is there a way to prevent unauthorized changes to my
objects? ................................................ 21
VIII. Network Optimization and Management ....................... 22
A. How do I optimize traffic on my network? ............ 22
Security Considerations ......................................... 22
Acknowledgements ................................................ 22
References ...................................................... 22
Authors' Addresses .............................................. 24
Appendix A: The Internet Agencies .............................. 25
Appendix B: Documentation ...................................... 28
Appendix C: Country Codes ...................................... 29
Appendix D: Acronyms ........................................... 30
Full Copyright Statement ........................................ 31
Who Should Read This Document
This document is intended for system engineers and technical managers
of networks who want to make a connection to the Internet. It
assumes a basic knowledge of the Internet and networking.
This information is intended to help new or expanding networks
understand and follow the Internet administrative procedures, and to
provide assistance in filling out the various templates and
registration forms. Appendix D is a glossary of acronyms.
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Checklist
This document will explain the following procedures:
o Determine your organization type and current status.
o Determine your administrative and technical contacts.
o Determine your budget (and chargeback system) and choice of
carriers.
o Determine to whom you will connect.
o Predict your current and projected address space needs.
o Set-up your system to connect.
o Request and register your address space allocation.
o Request and register an autonomous system number, if needed.
o Register with a routing database, if needed.
o Register your country's domain name, if needed.
o Request and register your IN-ADDR.ARPA domain name, if needed.
Prerequisites
This document assumes that you have examined different alternatives
for physical connectivity and will assist you in navigating the
Internet infrastructure so that you can use that connectivity. In
choosing your upstream provider, you should consider their ability to
deal with the Internet infrastructure.
What will you be doing and what role will you play?
o If you are interested in connecting yourself (or a small
organization), you are an Internet end user. You will probably
want to contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP) for most of
your needs. Read section I and the first part of section II.
o If you are interested in connecting your organization and in
having address space to distribute within your network, you are an
Internet high volume end user. You will need more address space,
but still may chose to work with an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) for most of your needs. Read sections I and II.
o If you are interested in connecting your organization, and in
distributing addresses to your clients (who are end users), you
are an Internet Service Provider (ISP). You will need to contact
a Local Internet Registry (if one is available, or your upstream
provider). Read section I and continue reading the rest of this
document.
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o If you are interested in distributing addresses to your clients
and your clients are in turn distributing addresses, you are a
Local Internet Registry or large ISP. You will probably need to
contact the Regional Internet Registry in your geographical area.
Read section I and continue reading the rest of this document.
I. Preparation of Systems and Network Planning
STEP ONE: PREPARE INFORMATION, ORGANIZE HARDWARE, FIGURE OUT TO WHOM
YOU WILL CONNECT, AND TEST IN-COUNTRY SYSTEMS.
A. What do I need to connect to the Internet?
You can connect using dial-up or dedicated lines, and you can choose
UUCP or IP. It is preferable to be running the UNIX operating system
with TCP/IP over a dedicated line, although you can begin by using
UUCP over a dial-up line. Although there are alternatives to UNIX,
for historical reasons and robustness UNIX is better prepared to
handle Internet connectivity. It is best to use TCP/IP inside your
network even if you use another method for your external
connectivity.
You will need to obtain an Internet Protocol (IP) address, or block
of addresses, and a domain name. You may also need an Autonomous
System Number (ASN) and an IN-ADDR.ARPA (reverse addressing) domain
name. However, you may begin by having dial-up connectivity to
another organization that supports one or more mail exchange (MX)
record(s) for your site. This would allow you to receive email at
your own domain name without requiring you to invest as much
initially.
B. What connectivity medium should I choose?
You may be constrained by telecommunications regulations in your
country as to your choice of dial-up, digital phone lines, fiber
optic cable, or satellite suppliers. If not, cost, bandwidth, and
reliability will determine your choice.
C. What else do I need to do?
Before you do anything else:
1. Designate an administrative contact person and a technical contact
person.
Choose one person to be the administrative contact and another person
to be the technical contact. Write down their full names, email and
postal addresses, and telephone and fax numbers (with country
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prefixes in the form + country code (e.g., +011), city code, and
local telephone number). The administrative contact should be a
member of your organization and must reside in the country. The
technical contact should be the key network support person and may be
represented initially by someone outside of the country. Note that
the technical contact must transition to a network support person
residing in the country. The Internet Registries will request this
information in the form of database entries called objects. For
example, on the RIPE template, the administrative contact should be
listed in the admin-c field in the database objects, and the
technical contact in the tech-c field in the database objects (more
information on database objects follows in section II D below).
2. Determine your cost-recovery charging scheme, if needed, so that
you can sustain operations.
No form or record will specifically request this, but it is important
that you project your costs adequately so that you can assess fees to
cover them and ensure stability of operations.
3. Diagram your network topology.
Determine the number of groups and end users. Describe the size and
shape of your current network. Design your addressing plan based on
this information. It may be helpful to consider your organization
chart when doing this, if you anticipate it to be fairly stable.
If you are restricted to using the local telecommunications company's
telephone circuit, choose your circuit carrier based on capacity and
where it lands geographically. Consider an asymmetric circuit, e.g.,
128kbps in and 64kbps out, if you expect to have more incoming
traffic than outgoing (e.g., if most of the traffic is expected to
originate from web servers outside your network).
4. Determine to whom you will connect.
See the prerequisites section for types of connection providers that
might be appropriate for your situation. Determine which ISP or
telecommunications company best fits your connectivity needs.
5. Predict your address space and bandwidth requirements from end
user needs.
Since address space is finite and must be conserved, end users are
not permitted to reserve address space. Address space is based on
what your needs are and how you justify those needs. Evaluation of
IP address space requests is usually based on the documentation you
provide for the following 24 months (as per RFC 2050), as specified
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in the address space usage template and in the addressing plan you
submit. Once you have used your assigned address space, you can
request additional space based on an updated estimate of growth in
your network. This usually includes detailed documentation, updating
the appropriate regional registry database with details of your end
user assignments, and assigning address space both conservatively and
efficiently.
You will need to justify your needs for address space by
communicating your network design and should be prepared to clearly
present your plan for effective use of the request. Determine your
current and future user needs. If you are offering virtual web
services, it is no longer necessary to assign one IP address per
domain. HTTP/1.1 defines the "host" header to allow vanity names
without the use of an IP address. Allocations for points of presence
(POP) throughout your region should also be determined. Predictions
of user behavior can be based on analysis of published rates,
interviews with individual and institutional subscribers, and case
histories of other countries (see "History of the Internet in
Thailand"). For example,
Area1
10 dialup modems
10 leased lines to organization's LANs (size of the LANs)
Area2
5 dialup modems
Main POP
5 servers: mail, WWW, DNS, FTP, etc.
When you design your plan, you should design it for what you need
now, what you believe you will need six months from now, and then one
year and two years from now.
6. Set up, connect, and test your hardware and software.
It is important to ensure that you have enough representative systems
set up and their connectivity tested using temporary addresses before
contacting the appropriate agency for address space.
D. How do I get the documents referred to in this guide?
See Appendix B for details on obtaining the documents referred to in
this guide.
E. Section References
For more information on TCP/IP, see RFC 2151, "A Primer on Internet
and TCP/IP Tools and Utilities".
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II. Address Space Allocation
STEP TWO: OBTAIN ADDRESS SPACE ALLOCATION AND REGISTRATION FROM THE
ISP YOU ARE CONNECTING TO, OR (AS A LAST RESORT) YOUR REGIONAL
REGISTRY.
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (under the current version 4) are
32-bit numbers usually expressed as 4 octets in dotted decimal
notation (for example, 128.223.162.27, which is the IP address for
the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) web server at the time of
this writing). Public IP addresses make up the Internet address
space. Addresses are allocated in a hierarchical manner and are
designed to be unique.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocates large
address blocks to the three current Regional Internet Registries
(IRs): ARIN, APNIC, and RIPE NCC which, in turn, allocate smaller
blocks to Local Internet Registries or large ISPs. Local Internet
Registries, which are typically ISPs or collections of ISPs
represented at a country level, and large ISPs process the vast
majority of address space assignments to ISPs and end users
Contact the Internet service provider from whom you are getting your
connectivity services (your upstream provider) with an address
allocation request. It is important and required that you contact
your upstream provider first, and not the Regional IR automatically.
The first question the Regional Registry will ask you is why you
cannot get address space from your upstream provider.
A. Who is my upstream provider?
If there is an ISP already functioning in your country, contact them
directly. If you are to be the first connection in your country, you
may need to contact your Regional IR in your geographic region, but
you should always contact your upstream provider first for assistance
and guidance. Since address allocation is hierarchical, the
administrative organizations and procedures also represent this
hierarchical structure. It is important not to skip a step in the
hierarchy. Current Regional Registries include ARIN (the Americas,
Caribbean, and Africa), RIPE (Europe, Africa, and the Middle East),
and APNIC (the Pacific Rim and Asia). Contact information for these
organizations is listed in Appendix A.
You should contact your Regional Internet Registry if 1) the ISP you
are connecting to is unable or unwilling to provide address space, or
2) your particular connectivity requirements will result in non-local
data to your customers possibly taking a different route over the
Internet than data destined for your upstream provider's customers,
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or 3) you anticipate a quick growth rate that may require changing
your current upstream provider to a larger one and you wish to avoid
the renumbering that such a move would require.
B. How much address space should I ask for?
Regional IRs typically assign address blocks on the basis of an
immediate need and projected utilization rate within one year. (If
you are in the ARIN region, it is one year for end user organizations
and three months for ISPs.) Calculate your address space request
accordingly. It is recommended to include the organization chart and
network topology diagram referred to in section I.C, number 3
(above). Note that address space is allocated based on CIDR bit
boundaries (see next section). The registries will need to
understand your network engineering and deployment plans in
significant detail before they can allocate address space.
Therefore, the more detailed information you can provide, the more
likely your request will be processed quickly.
If you obtain address space from your ISP, it is very likely that you
will need to renumber should you decide to change upstream providers
and/or if you grow considerably. As this renumbering may affect your
customers (and their customers, etc.) if they are using dedicated
lines, you should carefully weigh the cost/benefit involved in
obtaining address space from your upstream provider.
If you are singly homed, you should obtain your address space from
your upstream ISP. If you plan on enlarging but remaining singly
homed, you should continue to obtain space this way as it promotes
aggregation. If, however, you plan to be multi-homed as part of your
growth plan, it would make sense to become a member of an appropriate
Regional IR (or, if one exists in your region, a national Network
Information Center (NIC) and obtain a /19 or "provider aggregatable"
address space.
The minimum routable block is often a /19, so if you plan on
enlarging, it is better to pay the fees to the Regional IR now and
obtain a /19 block so that you will not have to renumber later. Note
that if you are an ISP in the ARIN region, ARIN has special
requirements before you can do this in terms of the amount of address
space you have previously used, which must be a /21. The current
policy is that you must have used a /19 previously from your upstream
ISP before going to ARIN, or you must be multi-homed and show you
have used a /21 and be willing to renumber and ARIN will issue a /20
from a reserved /19.
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As of February 8, 1999, ARIN lowered the minimum allocation size for
IP addresses from a /19 to a /20. ARIN will issue initial
allocations of prefixes no longer than /20. If allocations smaller
than /20 are needed, ISPs and end users should request address space
from their upstream provider. ARIN does not guarantee that addresses
will be globally routable.
APNIC and RIPE NCC do not have these requirements. For APNIC, new
allocations to members will be a /19.
Remember that your upstream provider should route you if you ask
them. You are a customer of the ISP, so if the service is not what
you need you should change ISPs.
IF YOU ARE CONNECTED TO ONLY ONE PROVIDER, AND ARE NOT VERY LARGE
YET, GET AN ADDRESS RANGE FROM YOUR PROVIDER. SKIP THE REST OF THIS
SECTION AND ALL OF SECTION V.
C. What is CIDR?
CIDR stands for Classless Inter-Domain Routing. Historically, IP
addresses were assigned within classes: Class A (8 bits of network
address, 24 bits of host address), Class B (16 bits of network
address, 16 bits of host address), or Class C (24 bits of network
address, 8 bits of host address). With the advent of CIDR, address
space is now allocated and assigned on bit boundaries. Using CIDR
means you are able to assign addresses corresponding with the number
of hosts on the network, thereby conserving address space.
The following table illustrates this:
Addrs Bits Pref Class Mask
1 0 /32 255.255.255.255
2 1 /31 255.255.255.254
4 2 /30 255.255.255.252
8 3 /29 255.255.255.248
16 4 /28 255.255.255.240
32 5 /27 255.255.255.224
64 6 /26 255.255.255.192
128 7 /25 255.255.255.128
256 8 /24 1C 255.255.255.0
512 9 /23 2C 255.255.254.0
1K 10 /22 4C 255.255.252.0
2K 11 /21 8C 255.255.248.0
4K 12 /20 16C 255.255.240.0
8K 13 /19 32C 255.255.224.0
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Addrs
Number of addresses available; note that the number of
addressable hosts normally is 2 less than this number because
the host parts with all equal bits (all 0s, all 1s) are
reserved.
Bits
Size of the allocation/assignment in bits of address space.
Pref
Length of the prefix covering this address space. This is
sometimes used to indicate the size of an
allocation/assignment.
Class
Size of the address space in terms of class C network numbers.
Mask
The network mask defining the routing prefix in dotted quad
notation.
(From http://www.ibm.net.il/~hank/cidr.html)
D. How do I request and register address space?
You will need to send a database object to the appropriate registry
to request and register address space. The registration databases
are composed of records that are a series of fields separated by one
or more blank lines; each field consists of two parts, the tag and
the value. Do not modify the tags in the templates or errors will
occur. Values for particular fields are specified in the templates;
be careful to enter appropriate information.
The first line of a template denotes the record type. For example,
an IP address template's first line is inetnum, therefore the record
is known as an inetnum object. This first line is also used as the
primary key for the record, therefore if you want to modify the first
field of the record, the only way to do so is to delete the record
entirely and add a new record with the corrected information.
For illustration, here is the RIPE inetnum object.
inetnum: [IP address range that will be assigned]
netname: Network-Name
descr: Network-Name Communications Company, Town
admin-c: NIC-handle of administrative contact
tech-c: NIC-handle of technical contact
country: ISO 3166-country-code
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rev-srv: ns.someserver.net
rev-srv: ns.otherserver.net
status: assigned pa (provider aggregatable)
or assigned pi (provider independent)
changed: email@address.net 960731
source: RIPE
For Countries in the APNIC Region
In order to obtain services from APNIC, you will need to become a
member. APNIC-070 is the APNIC Membership Application. It is
located at:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/membership-application
Send the completed form via email to APNIC at:
member-apply@apnic.net
APNIC Address Allocation Requests:
Once you have become a member, you can request IP address space using
one of the three IP address request forms. If you are an
organization that will use address space internally only (e.g., large
enterprises such as universities, government ministries, large
corporations, etc.), choose #1 (End User Address Request). If you
are an organization that plans to sub-delegate address space to
customers (e.g., you are an ISP), choose #2 (ISP Address Request).
If you are a confederation of ISPs (e.g., national NICs, etc.),
choose #3 (Confederation Address Request).
1. APNIC-074 is the APNIC End User Internet Address Request Form.
2. APNIC-065 is the APNIC Internet Services Provider Internet
Address Request Form.
3. Confederations are a means by which service providers can group
together to provide resource allocation and registration services
tailored to their specific local language and cultural requirements.
For details on how to become an APNIC recognized confederation,
please see APNIC Confederation Concepts and Requirements located at:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/confed-requirements
APNIC-074 is the APNIC Confederation Internet Address Request Form.
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Copies of all forms can be found in the following directory:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs
or
http://www.apnic.net/reg.html
All completed forms should be sent to:
hostmaster@apnic.net
If there are strong reasons why you cannot obtain address space from
your upstream ISP, and you require address space as a one-time
allocation only, you can obtain address space as a "non member". For
more details, see APNIC-071:
http://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/non-member-application
and send the completed form to:
billing@apnic.net
For Countries in the ARIN Region
Membership in ARIN is optional and not a requirement for requesting
IP address space from the registry or from your Internet service
provider. If you are a large end user organization, choose #1. If
you are an ISP, choose #2.
1. The form for network number assignments is located at:
ftp://rs.arin.net/templates/networktemplate.txt
or
http://www.arin.net/templates/networktemplate.txt
2. The form for ISPs to obtain a CIDR block of IP network numbers is
located at:
ftp://rs.arin.net/templates/isptemplate.txt
or
http://www.arin.net/templates/isptemplate.txt
Send either completed form via email to ARIN at:
hostmaster@arin.net
with "IP request" (if you chose #1) or "ISP CIDR request" (if you
chose #2) in the subject field, as appropriate.
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For Countries in the RIPE Region
RIPE NCC provides IP address space allocation only to contributing
local Internet registries. For a description of the European
Internet Registry policies and procedures, see RIPE-159, "European
Internet Registry Policies and Procedures". It is located at:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-159.txt
RIPE-160 is Guidelines for Setting up a Local Internet Registry. It
is located at:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/docs/ripe-160.txt
If you have questions regarding setting up a new local IR, please
contact the RIPE NCC at:
new-lir@ripe.net
Once your local IR is established, you will get detailed information
on how to submit requests to the RIPE NCC hostmaster.
Send the completed form via email to RIPE NCC at:
ncc@ripe.net
If you have general queries, please contact RIPE NCC at:
ncc@ripe.net
E. Section References
For more information on IP addresses, see RFC 1518, "An Architecture
for IP Address Allocation with CIDR" and RFC 2050, "Internet Registry
IP Allocation Guidelines".
III. Autonomous Systems (AS)
STEP THREE: IF NEEDED, OBTAIN AN AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM NUMBER.
A. What is an ASN and do I need one?
Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) are used to facilitate routing in
multi-homed environments. They are allocated when your routing
policy is different from your provider's. This generally means your
site is multi-homed. In nearly all cases, unless you are multi-homed
to more than one ISP, you will not need an ASN. If your routing
policy does not differ from your service provider's, you should use
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the service provider's ASN. If there is constant traffic between you
and a point in another country, you may want to connect to a second
ISP in that country. Note that the resultant multi-homing generally
makes the system more robust and may also change registry (and
therefore request) relationships. It also increases costs greatly.
You may have to reduce traffic on your international lines by
choosing to connect to a local exchange point. This allows traffic
to stay within your country and off of expensive international links.
If you implement this plan, you will be multi-homed and will need to
read the autonomous systems and routing sections of this document.
B. How do I register an ASN?
Since the ASN space is quite limited, request only what you really
need when you need it.
For Countries in the APNIC Region
APNIC-066 is the ASN Request Form. The form is located at:
http://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/asn-request
Send the completed form via email to APNIC at:
hostmaster@apnic.net
For Countries in the ARIN Region
A complete listing of assigned ASNs is located at:
ftp://rs.arin.net/netinfo/asn.txt
The ASN registration form is located at:
ftp://rs.arin.net/templates/asntemplate.txt
or
http://www.arin.net/templates/asntemplate.txt
Send the completed form via email to ARIN at:
hostmaster@arin.net
with "ASN request" in the subject field.
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For Countries in the RIPE Region
The European Autonomous System Number Application Form and Supporting
Notes form (RIPE-147) is located at:
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-147.txt
Local IRs can send the completed form via email to RIPE at:
hostmaster@ripe.net
C. Section References
For more information on ASNs, see RFC 1930, "Autonomous Systems
(AS)".
IV. Routing and Exchange Points
STEP FOUR: IF NEEDED, REGISTER WITH A ROUTING DATABASE.
A. Do I need to register with a routing database?
You do not need to register with a routing database if you are simply
carrying default routes to your (single) ISP. If you get your
address space from an ISP, the ISP will register you. If you are
connected to more than one ISP, then you should register with a
routing database.
The more multi-homed you are, the larger your routing tables need to
be. If you are connected to public exchange points (see examples
below), or to more than one backbone ISP, you need to carry full
routing tables and run without a default route.
Example European Exchange Points:
LINX London Internet Exchange
M9-IX Moscow Internet Exchange
NIX.CZ Neutral Internet Exchange, Czech Republic
Example Asia/Pacific Exchange Points:
AUIX Australia Internet Exchange
HKIX Hong Kong Internet Exchange
JPIX Japan Internet Exchange
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Example Americas Exchange Points:
MAE-EAST Metropolitan Area Ethernet - East
MAE-WEST Metropolitan Area Ethernet - West
PAIX Palo Alto Internet Exchange
Depending on the requirements of your international ISP, you may be
able to have only a default route to them and specific routes to
other suppliers if you have an in-country exchange point. Or they
may require that you carry a full set of routes, treating your
connection to the in-country exchange point as if it were a multi-
homed connection.
B. What about CIDR and routing?
All registries use CIDR. All major router vendors (Cisco, 3Com,
Nortel, Proteon, IBM, etc.) support CIDR. CIDR Internet routers use
only the prefix of the destination address to route traffic to a
subnetted environment.
C. How do I choose a routing database?
The Internet Routing Registry (IRR) describes registries maintained
by several national and international networking organizations.
These currently include the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (NCC),
ANS (Advanced Network Solutions, Inc.), Bell Canada (formerly
CA*net), Cable and Wireless (CW), and the Routing Arbiter Database
(RADB). The IRR is a way for ASNs to publicize their own intended
routing policies without having to request a change from a go-
between.
"whois" queries to "whois.ra.net" return data that they gather from
the entire IRR set of routing registries. Tools such as "peval" and
"rtconfig" return data only from the RADB. Thus, when running those
tools and desiring data from a set of registries, one must enumerate
them as in the following example. "whois" queries to the client
configure the precedence of routing databases. For example:
@RtConfig set sources = "TEST, RADB, RIPE, ANS, BELL, CW"
There are several other registries, such as ALTDB. A list, and other
information on RADB, is available at:
http://www.radb.net/
As of January 1, 2000, the transition to the Routing Policy
Specification Language (RSPL) is complete. RIPE-181 object
submissions are no longer accepted. For more information, see:
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http://www.merit.edu/radb/announce.html
With the exception of the Routing Arbiter Database, each registry
serves a limited customer base. ANS, Cable and Wireless, and Bell
Canada accept routing registrations for their customers alone, and
the RIPE NCC oversees European registrations. The Routing Arbiter
Database is unique in that it handles registrations for networking
organizations not covered by the other routing registries. The
Routing Arbiter also provides coordination among all the registries
to ensure consistent representation of routing policies.
All Regional IRs need to register with one (only one) of the routing
databases in the IRR. If you are announcing routes via BGP4, you need
to register your routes in the Routing Registry in only one of the
IRR's. Logically, this will be the "closest" IRR to you. However,
note that some ISPs do not use the regional registries or RADB.
D. How do I register in the RADB (The Americas)?
You need to submit three types of database records to the RADB: one
or more maintainer objects, an AS object, and one or more route
objects.
To specify the individuals who are allowed to update your records in
the RADB, fill out one or more maintainer objects and send them via
email to:
db-admin@radb.net
You need to submit a maintainer object before you can register any AS
or route objects.
To describe the autonomous system that announces your routes, fill
out an AS object and submit it via email to:
auto-dbm@radb.net
AS objects are also called aut-num objects.
To register your routes, fill out one or more route objects, and send
them to RADB via email to:
auto-dbm@radb.net
Note that most of the IRR participants have the auto-dbm@xx.net email
address function for accepting updates to the IRR automatically.
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E. Section References
For more information on routers, see RFC 1812, "Requirements for IP
Version 4 Routers". See also RFC 1786, "Representation of IP Routing
Policies in a Routing Registry (ripe-181++)".
For more information on CIDR and routing, see RFC 1817, "CIDR and
Classful Routing".
V. Domain Name Registration
STEP FIVE: REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN NAME.
A. What is a country domain?
The Domain Name System (DNS) specifies the naming of computers within
a hierarchy. Top-Level Domain (TLD) names include generic TLDs
(gTLDs) and two-letter country codes (ccTLDs). Examples of gTLDs
include .com (commercial), .net (network), and .org (organization).
Examples of two-letter country codes are .ca for Canada, .fr for
France, and .id for Indonesia. ISO 3166 is used as a basis for
country code top-level domain names. Country codes are assigned by
the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in
cooperation with the United Nations. The Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) directly registers all country-code top-level
domains, however it is not involved in the allocation of codes to
countries. IANA is a function of the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN, see Appendix A). See ISO 3166 for
more information and a current listing of country codes (Appendix C).
A hierarchy of names may, and normally should be, created under each
TLD. There is a wide variation in the structure of country domains.
In some countries there is a substantial hierarchy, while in others
the structure is flat. In some country domains the second levels are
generic categories, while in others they are based on geography, and
in still others, organization names are listed directly under the
country code. Examples of second level generic categories are ac or
edu (academic or education), co or com (corporate or commercial), and
go or gov (government).
B. How do I register as a country domain?
First check that: (1) the domain is still available, few are, (2) you
have someone in your country as the administrative contact, and (3)
your name servers are prepared (see RFC 1912 for information on
common errors in preparing name servers).
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The whois master database is the authoritative source of information
on .com, .net, .org, and .edu domain name registrations. It is
currently maintained by Network Solutions, Inc. and holds referral
pointers to which whois database contains the record for the domain
name.
To apply to manage a country code top-level domain you should:
1. First, if you are on a UNIX host, use the "whois" command to see
if the domain is already registered:
whois =<domain>
2. If the domain does not already have an administrative contact,
request a Domain Name Agreement template from IANA by sending email
to:
iana@iana.org
C. What if my country is already registered?
If your country is already registered, contact the country-code
administrator to register a new second-level domain name.
Please note that ARIN, RIPE, and APNIC do not handle domain names
(other than IN-ADDR.ARPA). If you want to register a domain name
directly under a top-level domain (TLD), please contact the
appropriate TLD administrator.
D. How do I resolve a country domain name dispute?
See RFC 1591 for domain name dispute information. Note that you will
need to resolve the dispute within your country before you contact
IANA.
E. Section References
For more information on domain names, see RFC 1591, "Domain Name
System Structure and Delegation"; RFC 1713, "Tools for DNS
Debugging"; and RFC 1912, "Common DNS Operational and Configuration
Errors".
VI. IN-ADDR.ARPA Domain Delegation
STEP SIX: IF NEEDED, REGISTER YOUR IN-ADDR.ARPA DOMAIN.
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A. What is an IN-ADDR.ARPA domain and do I need one?
An IN-ADDR.ARPA domain allows for mapping of IP addresses into domain
names. This is often referred to as "inverse addressing" because it
is the opposite of the domain name to IP address resolution. IN-ADDR
domains are represented using the network number in reverse. For
example, the IN-ADDR domain for network 123.45.67.0 is represented as
67.45.123.in-addr.arpa.
You almost always need reverse resolution.
B. How do I register an IN-ADDR.ARPA domain?
You should ask your upstream provider about registering your IN-
ADDR.ARPA domains. If you are working directly with a regional
registry, see below.
For Countries in the APNIC Region
The IN-ADDR.ARPA Delegation Form is APNIC-064 and is located at:
ftp://ftp.apnic.net/apnic/docs/in-addr-request
CAUTION: You must set-up your name server to accept the delegation
prior to submission of this form.
Send the completed form via email to APNIC at:
domreg@rs.apnic.net
For Countries in the ARIN Region
How IN-ADDR.ARPA is registered is dependent on the registration of
the block needing reverse entries. For example, all blocks that have
been registered directly from the Regional IR may have IN-ADDR.ARPA
delegation established by ARIN. In this case, IN-ADDR.ARPA
delegations are registered using the ARIN modify template. This
template can be found at:
ftp://ftp.arin.net/templates/modifytemplate.txt
or
http://www.arin.net/templates/modifytemplate.txt
Instructions for completing the template can be found at the bottom
of the template.
CAUTION: Do not list your network number in reverse on the template.
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Send the completed form via email to ARIN at:
hostmaster@arin.net
All blocks that have been reassigned to your organization by an ISP
will have IN-ADDR.ARPA established by your provider. In this case,
contact the ISP that reassigned IP address space to your organization
and coordinate IN-ADDR.ARPA delegation.
For Countries in the RIPE Region
The domain object needs to be entered in the RIPE database before
requesting reverse delegation.
domain: 0.194.in-addr.arpa
descr: Our organization allocation
admin-c: NIC-handle of administrative contact (e.g., JLC-2RIPE)
tech-c: NIC-handle of technical contact
zone-c: NIC-handle of zone contact
nserver: Name server (e.g., ns.someserver.net)
nserver: ns.otherserver.net
nserver: ns.ripe.net
changed: email@address.net 960731
source: RIPE
NOTE: One of the name servers has to be ns.ripe.net
The domain object described above should be included in the request,
as well as zone file entries for the zone above the one requested.
For example, if a reverse delegation is requested for 1.193.in-
addr.arpa, the relevant zone file entries should be included for
193.in-addr.arpa; whereas if a reverse delegation is requested for
2.2.193.in-addr.arpa, the zone file entries should be included for
2.193.in-addr.arpa.
Send the completed object(s) via email to RIPE at:
auto-inaddr@ripe.net
VII. Security
A. Is there a way to prevent unauthorized changes to my objects?
Registries provide various security measures to prevent unauthorized
changes to your database entries. Contact your regional IR for more
information. Note that the contact information you provide in the
database object registrations is not private.
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VIII. Network Optimization and Management
A. How do I optimize traffic on my network?
Contact the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis
(CAIDA). CAIDA is a collaborative undertaking to promote greater
cooperation in the engineering and maintenance of a robust, scalable
global Internet infrastructure. CAIDA provides a neutral framework
to support these cooperative endeavors.
The CAIDA web-site is located at:
http://www.caida.org/
Send email with questions or comments to:
info@caida.org
Security Considerations
Security is discussed in section VII.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Brian Candler, David Conrad, John Heasley, Kim Hubbard,
Daniel Karrenberg, Anne Lord, Dawn Martin, Charles Musisi, Jon
Postel, and April Marine and the IETF User Services Working Group for
reviewing various versions of this document; and to Hank Nussbacher
for permission to reprint his table on CIDR.
Special thanks are also due to Dr. Steven Goldstein of the National
Science Foundation for his contributions and suggestions, and to the
National Science Foundation for partial funding of this work.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grant No. NCR-961657. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.
References
[1] Malkin, G., "Internet Users' Glossary", FYI 18, RFC 1983, August
1996.
[2] Hinden, R., Editor, "Applicability Statement for the
Implementation of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)", RFC
1517, September 1993.
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[3] Rekhter, Y. and T. Li, "An Architecture for IP Address
Allocation with CIDR", RFC 1518, September 1993.
[4] Fuller, V., Li, T., Yu, J. and K. Varadhan, "Classless Inter-
Domain Routing (CIDR): an Address Assignment and Aggregation
Strategy", RFC 1519, September 1993.
[5] Rekhter, Y. and C. Topolcic, "Exchanging Routing Information
Across Provider Boundaries in the CIDR Environment", RFC 1520,
September 1993.
[6] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation", RFC
1591, March 1994.
[7] Wijnen, B., Carpenter, G., Curran, K., Sehgal, A. and G. Waters,
"Simple Network Management Protocol Distributed Protocol
Interface Version 2.0", RFC 1592, March 1994.
[8] Ramao, A., "Tools for DNS debugging", RFC 1713, November 1994.
[9] Baker, F., "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers", RFC 1812,
June 1995.
[10] Rekhter, Y., "CIDR and Classful Routing", RFC 1817, August 1995.
[11] Barr, D., "Common DNS Operational and Configuration Errors", RFC
1912, February 1996.
[12] Hawkinson, J. and T. Bates, "Guidelines for Creation, Selection,
and Registration of an Autonomous System", RFC 1930, March 1996.
[13] Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies",
RFC 2045, November 1996.
[14] Hubbard, K., Kosters, M., Conrad, D., Karrenberg, D. and J.
Postel, "Internet Registry IP Allocation Guidelines", BCP 12,
RFC 2050, November 1996.
[15] Kessler, G. and S. Shepard, "A Primer On Internet and TCP/IP
Tools and Utilities", FYI 30, RFC 2151, June 1997.
[16] ISO 3166: "Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries"
[17] Palasri, S., Huter, S., and Wenzel, Z. "The History of the
Internet in Thailand", University of Oregon Books, 1999.
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Authors' Addresses
Zita Wenzel, Ph.D.
Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)
1225 Kincaid Street
1212-University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1212 USA
EMail: zita@nsrc.org
John C. Klensin, Ph.D.
Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)
1225 Kincaid Street
1212-University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1212 USA
EMail: klensin@nsrc.org
Randy Bush
Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)
1225 Kincaid Street
1212-University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1212 USA
EMail: randy@nsrc.org
Steven Huter
Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)
1225 Kincaid Street
1212-University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1212 USA
EMail: sghuter@nsrc.org
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Appendix A: The Internet Agencies
o The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
IANA is the central coordinator for the assignment of unique
parameter values for Internet protocols and for all address space and
name space used in the Internet. IANA allocates parts of the
Internet address space to Regional Internet Registries (IRs) for
distribution to Local IRs and ISPs. IANA is also responsible for the
coordination and management of the Domain Name System (DNS).
Note that as of 1999, IANA is a function of the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit corporation
that is the top-level administration authority of the global
Internet.
Email: iana@iana.org
Postal: 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
USA
Telehone: +1-310-823-9358
Fax: +1-310-823-8649
Internet: http://www.iana.org/
o Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
From the ICANN web site:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a
technical coordination body for the Internet. Created in October 1998
by a broad coalition of the Internet's business, technical, academic,
and user communities, ICANN is assuming responsibility for a set of
technical functions previously performed under U.S. Government
contract by IANA and other groups.
Specifically, ICANN coordinates the assignment of the following
identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to
function: Internet domain names, IP address numbers, protocol
parameter and port numbers. In addition, ICANN coordinates the
stable operation of the Internet's root server system.
As a non-profit, private-sector corporation, ICANN is dedicated to
preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting
competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet
communities; and to developing policy through private-sector,
bottom-up, consensus-based means. ICANN welcomes the participation
of any interested Internet user, business, or organization.
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Email: icann@icann.org
Postal: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN)
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
USA
Telehone: +1-310-823-9358
Fax: +1-310-823-8649
Internet: http://www.icann.org/
o InterNIC
The InterNIC was a cooperative activity between the National Science
Foundation, General Atomics, AT&T, and Network Solutions, Inc. The
joint activity InterNIC no longer exists.
Currently, Network Solutions runs the central registry according to
the shared registry model specified by ICANN for registration of
second-level domain names under the generic top-level
domains .com, .net, and .org.
For information on accredited registrars for .com, .net, and .org,
please see:
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html
(note that Network Solutions is an accredited registrar as well as
the entity running the registry).
Email: hostmaster@netsol.com
Postal: Network Solutions, Inc.
505 Huntmar Park Dr.
Herndon, VA 20170 US
Telephone: +1-703-742-4777
Fax: +1-703-742-9552
Internet: http://www.networksolutions.com/
Regional Internet Registries (IRs)
Regional IRs operate in large geopolitical regions such as
continents. Currently, there are three Regional IRs: ARIN for the
Americas, the Caribbean, and Africa; RIPE NCC for Europe, Africa, and
the Middle East; and APNIC for the Asia Pacific region. The specific
duties of the Regional IRs include coordination and representation of
all local Internet Registries in their respective region.
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o APNIC
Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) is a non-profit
Internet registry for the Asia Pacific region. APNIC provides IP
address allocation, Autonomous System Number (ASN) assignment, and
IN-ADDR.ARPA registration.
Email: hostmaster@apnic.net
Postal: APNIC Box 2131
Milton Queensland 4064
Australia
Telephone: +61-7-3367-0490
Fax: +61-7-3367-0482
Internet: http://www.apnic.net/
o ARIN
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is a non-profit
Internet registry that was established for the purpose of
administration and registration of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers to
the geographical areas that were previously managed by Network
Solutions, Inc. These areas include, but are not limited to, North
America, South America, Africa, and the Caribbean region. ARIN
provides IP address allocation, Autonomous System Number (ASN)
assignment, and IN-ADDR.ARPA registration.
Email: hostmaster@arin.net
Postal: 4506 Daly Drive
Suite 200
Chantilly, VA 20151
Telephone: +1-703-227-0660
Fax +1-703-227-0676
Internet: http://www.arin.net/
o RIPE NCC
Reseaux IP Europens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) is a non-
profit Internet registry for the European, North African, and Middle
East regions. RIPE NCC provides IP address allocation, Autonomous
System Number (ASN) assignment, and IN-ADDR.ARPA registration.
Email: ncc@ripe.net
Postal: Singel 258
1016 AB Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31-20-535-4444
Fax: +31-20-535-4445
Internet: http://www.ripe.net/
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Appendix B: Documentation
Internet Documentation
For general Internet documentation, "ftp" to rfc-editor.org and "cd"
to the /rfc subdirectory for Request for Comments documents.
Details on obtaining these documents via ftp or email may be obtained
by sending an email message to:
rfc-info@rfc-editor.org
with the message body help: ways_to_get_rfcs. For example:
To: rfc-info@isi.edu
Subject: getting rfcs
help: ways_to_get_rfcs
Documents, Templates, and Forms
The documents, templates, and forms referenced in this guide are
available from the document stores in the directories listed in the
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). Organizations without connectivity
wishing to obtain copies of the referenced documents should contact
their Local IR to arrange postal delivery of one or more of the
documents. Note that fees may be associated with the delivery of
hardcopy versions of documents.
The document stores can be accessed in two ways:
1. Via anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
Using your ftp program, connect to the appropriate host computer
shown below using your email address as the password. Use the "cd"
(change directory) command to connect to the appropriate
subdirectory, then use the "get" command to retrieve the specific
file. For example:
ftp rs.apnic.net (for countries in the Asia/Pacific region)
ftp rs.arin.net (for countries in the Americas)
ftp rs.ripe.net (for countries in Europe or North Africa)
login: anonymous
password: your_email_address
cd netinfo
get <domain>_info.txt
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2. Via electronic mail, ftp, or the World Wide Web.
Send email to the appropriate address shown below with the message
body as specified.
APNIC Documentation
For APNIC documents and templates, "ftp" to ftp.apnic.net and "cd" to
/apnic/docs. APNIC no longer has an electronic mail method of form
retrieval. Many of APNIC's request forms are also available on the
web site at:
http://www.apnic.net/reg.html
ARIN Documentation
For ARIN templates, "ftp" to rs.arin.net and "cd" to /templates.
You can also obtain templates via the web site at:
http://www.arin.net/templates.html
Other ARIN documentation is available at:
http://www.arin.net/docs.html
Or send email to:
hostmaster@arin.net
RIPE Documentation
For RIPE documents and forms, "ftp" to ftp.ripe.net/ripe and "cd" to
/docs or cd to /forms.
Or send email to:
mail-server@ripe.net
with send help in the body of the message.
Appendix C: Country Codes
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3166
Maintenance Agency and ISO 3166 current list of two-letter country
codes is available via:
http://www.iso.ch/infoe/agency/3166-1.htm
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Appendix D: Acronyms
ANS Advanced Network Services, Inc.
ASN Autonomous System Number
APNIC Asia Pacific Network Information Center
ARIN American Registry for Internet Numbers
AS Autonomous System
CANET Canada Net
CIDR Classless Inter-Domain Routing
DNS Domain Name System
gTLD Generic Top-Level Domain
IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
InterNIC Internet Network Information Center
IP Internet Protocol
IR Internet Registry
IRR Internet Routing Registry
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISP Internet Service Provider
LINX London Internet Exchange
NCC Network Coordination Centre
NIC Network Information Center
NSRC Network Startup Resource Center
POP Point of Presence
RADB Routing Arbiter Data Base
RFC Request for Comments
RIPE Reseaux IP Europeans
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TLD Top-Level Domain
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Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Acknowledgement
Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
Internet Society.
Wenzel, et al. Informational [Page 31]
Hosting by: Hurra Communications Ltd.
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