On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Matthew Kaufman wrote:
I'm having a problem getting the Internic to allocate additional IP addresses to us. I'm looking for feedback (public or private) from others who may have had this problem that I can forward to my lawyers.
Lawyers will only cost you money, slow you down and accomplish nothing in the end.
Now I guess they believe that, and they've fallen back on the argument that I don't allocate addresses as well as they'd like. This is based on looking at our rwhois data. Now, we have large numbers of customers with small static blocks who don't really want their name and address listed publically... and so we've listed those blocks as things like w.x.y.z/24 -> "workgroup ISDN accounts in San Jose". But that apparently doesn't satisfy whoever plays netreg@internic.net. In fact, upon reviewing our customer policy about disclosure of customer information, we've had to turn off our rwhois server entirely until we can go through and seriously sanitize it.
Sounds like your company is suffering from a serious lack of knowledge about IP allocation procedures and policies. The only solution to this is to educate yourself, get your internal procedures and policies in order, and integrate your knowledge of IP allocation procedures into your planning processes.
All I want is some addresses so that I can continue to hook up customers, allocate additional addresses to providers downstream of us who need more addresses for *their* customers, and build a backbone network. But I've been forced into getting our lawyers involved.
It's your own ignorance that created your problem and its your own ignorance that is leading you to lawyers.
Again, anybody who's figured out how to force the Internic to be reasonable about address allocation, *please* drop me a note.
For starters after reading your plans I can't see any reason why you couldn't afford to spend $10,000 or $20,000 to get the IP addresses you need. If you are willing to spend some money here's what to do. Telephone the IP allocation folks at the Internic and ask to meet with them in Virginia to explain what you need to do to get IP addresses and ensure smooth allocation of addresses in the future. Don't even mention the specifics of what has happened in the past and do *NOT* ask for addresses. Ask for a meeting. Tell them that a technical person and a management person (CEO) will be at the meeting. Once the date and time is arranged, fly to Virginia, sit down, listen, ask questions, take notes. Be especially careful with the notetaking. For instance, if the Internic person says "You have to one, two, thre, blah blah" you should confirm it by saying "So if we one, two three, blah, blah that will meet this requirement?". Throughout this meeting be friendly. Do not bluster or threaten or yell or whine. What if they won't meet with you? Then ask them where you can find out this information. Where can you find a consultant to hire who knows. Your intent on the phone call should be to determine who has the knowledge to solve the problem (Internic person or consultant) and where you have to go to meet with this person. Be prepared to change your internal policies. Be prepared to thoroughly document what you are using IP addresses for. Be civil. Michael Dillon - ISP & Internet Consulting Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-604-546-3049 http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com