On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Paul Thornton <prt@prt.org> wrote:
On 18/09/2012 15:07, Eugen Leitl wrote:
http://paritynews.com/network/item/325-department-of-work-and-pensions-uk-in...
Department of Work and Pensions UK in Possession of 16.9 Million Unused IPv4 Addresses
The only slight snag in his argument is that the addresses are not unused. Not announced != Not used.
And for the definitive answer on this block, the official response is: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/internet_protocol_ipv4_address_a and http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/internet_protocol_ipv4_address_a_2
1. We can confirm that the address block is assigned to the DWP.
2. In principle, none of the address space is exposed to the public Internet. There may be a very small number of addresses that have been exposed for specific purposes, but certainly no significant block of addresses is visible from the public Internet.
3. The address space is already shared across government. We have used or allocated approximately 80% of the address space, and have earmarked the remaining space for use within the proposed Public Services Network (PSN). The PSN is building an Internet for government, and the DWP address space is a key building block for delivery of this.
4. DWP have no plans to release any of the address space for use on the public Internet. The cost and complexity of re-addressing the existing government estate is too high to make this a viable proposition. DWP are aware that the worldwide IPv4 address space is almost exhausted, but knows that in the short to medium term there are mechanisms available to ISPs that will allow continued expansion of the Internet, and believes that in the long term a transition to IPv6 will resolve address exhaustion. Note that even if DWP were able to release their address space, this would only delay IPv4 address exhaustion by a number of months.
And for 25.0.0.0 to 25.255.255.255 the response from the Ministry of Defense is:
I can confirm that the IPv4 address block about which you enquire is assigned to and owned by the MOD; however, I should point out that within this block, none of the addresses or address ranges are in use on the public internet for departmental IT, communications or other functions. To date, we estimate that around 60% of the IPv4 address block has been allocated for internal use. As I am sure you will appreciate, the volume and complexity of the Information Systems used by the Armed Forces supporting military operations and for training continues to develop and grow. We are aware that the allocation of IPv4 addresses are becoming exhausted, and the issue has been recognised within the Department as a potential future IS risk. In summary, therefore, we are unable to consider releasing parts of the address block that has been allocated to the UKMOD for reassignment to non-UK Government organisations.