For Sysadmin
- Suppose Internet is important for your business process;
- Suppose there are already two service providers, providing Internet access to your office but one of them, or the other constantly fails;
- Suppose you are fed up with resetting the office equipment every time you change your provider or when your office moves to another place.
How about getting your own IP address range?
Why?
You will be able to maintain a few simultaneous independent connections with different providers. Your IP addresses won't change when you give up your Internet provider or move to another building. Using services of a few Internet service providers insures that your Internet connectivity is never down. System administrators do their work without racking their brains to change addressing schemes and redirect traffic over different paths: BGP protocol-based typical schemes have been used for a long time now.
What do we have to do?
You get your own IP addresses range for good, or at least until you decide to give it up. You will have to ask your provider to do a BGP connection with your network. When the connection is set, you will have to move your network to your own IP addresses.
How many IP addresses can we have?
As many as you need. The important thing is that you are really going to use them. IP addresses reservation is not allowed. Common practice is, you will inform us about how many addresses you need and how you are going to use them for the next three months, a year, and two years. After your application has been processed, you get the required IP addresses. Another thing you have to do is get an autonomous system (AS) number. You can apply for an AS number right after you lodge your IP addresses application.
Where do the applications go? Can we send the?
Applications are sent to Reseaux IP Europeen Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC). Applications must be submitted via e-mail. Only those registrars who have an agreement with RIPE NCC can submit applications. The price is about €2000 for the setting up the contract, and from €1300 per year thereafter.
That's a lot! Are there any other ways?
There are. We have everything required for submitting an application on your behalf. In this case, it's going to save you the contract and annual payment expenses. All you have to do is make a single payment for IP addresses range and an AS number registry.
BGP is difficult. Our provider doesn't have it.
That's not a problem. You don't have to use the AS number that you get; you don't have to get an AS number at all then. All you have to do is agree with your provider on routing your IP addresses on the provider's behalf. Your IP addresses will stay with you and not with the provider anyway.
What kind of IP addresses are we going to get?
RIPE NCC gives its members IPv4 addresses of two main types: allocated PA (provider aggregatable) and assigned PI (provider independent). It's a common mistake to think that assigned PI ranges are not big enough. They are! There are even PI ranges of /16 (65,536 addresses). We can get you IP address ranges of any type; however, we have made application for assigned PI addresses range our standard service since it requires only a single payment.