On Mar 29, 7:22pm, "David R. Conrad" wrote: } >Comparing APNIC and RIPE to the current US model is not fair or } >accurate. } } True. Where APNIC and RIPE members have direct input into how their } registries are operated, American (and South African) ISPs are subject } to the political winds of the US government. Where APNIC and RIPE } members control how resources are expended, American (and South } African) ISPs must abide by a commercial company's decisions as } (theoretically) moderated by the NSF. Where APNIC and RIPE members } take responsibility for the administration of the resource on which } they depend, American (and South African) ISPs rely on the US } government to play mommy. }-- End of excerpt from "David R. Conrad" I'm from South Africa. The fact that we are so tied to the USA upsets me. I also administer the 'co.za' domain - probably the largest domain in Africa - with (as of writing) 5607 registered names. Many folk have stated that Africa should have its own NIC. It would make most sense that DNS, ASN and IP Allocation came from one place. Adopting the line of 'slow startup' - I approached the InterNIC for a single superblock of Class C addresses - to start attending with some of the local address problems - and have currently been refused. I'm not planning on running all this myself - but it would be unfair to expect any organisation to suddently have the full required infrastructure to run everything that a full blown NIC probably should have. Sure there are a number of people talking about getting this going - but thats all - just talking. The AfricanNIC has to start somehow - and a slow start is the Internet Way. So whom do I petition? Oh - my personal interests range as far as Central Africa - Zaire - etc... This is not just a local South African only thing. -- . . ___. .__ Olivetti Systems & Networks, Unix Support - Sth Africa /| /| / /__ mje@posix.co.za - Mark J Elkins, SCO ACE, Cisco CCIE / |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS Tel: +27 11 456 3125 Cell: +27 82 601 0496