[DBWG] All AFRINIC-administered IP space

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <CAEqgTWZi2yC1XfG2zpZeGfAKQ6Smia_S4+Ld7ff01FMkO3sxKg at mail.gmail.com>
Noah <noah at neo.co.tz> wrote:


>If {RADB} aint listening to you they would probably not listen to any of us

>either.

>

>FWIW, RADB services are not free and as such....

>

>Can we assume that squatters are paying a fee to maintain an IRR account

>with RADB which then empowers them to create and maintain route objects for

>Afrinic bogons or those orphan prefixes abandoned by those who had been

>assigned.


I honestly was not aware of the fact that people had to pay money to
get routes into the RADB data base until I saw this message that I am
responding to (from Noah).  This puts a whole different light on the
problem!

RADB is operated by Merit, Inc. which is located in the State of Michigan,
U.S.A.  All I knew... up until now... was that it is a "non profit" entity:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network

Based on that one small scrap of information, I had incorrectly assumed
that it was 100% free for people to add routes to the RADB.  But apparently
not so!  Far from it!  I see now that the company charges a HEFTY annual
membership fee to all those who want to put route objects in their data
base:

   For-Profit Organization	$595.00 USD
   Non-Profit Organization	$425.00 USD

That is a LONG way from free!

So, this certainly raises a number of (awkward?) questions, such as

    (*)  Does RADB -remove- routes from their data base when someone
         stops paying the annual membership fee?  (The evidence suggests
         that they fail to do such cleanups.)

    (*)  Will RADB allow paying members to add routes to bogon IP space,
         and/or to bogon AS numbers?

Now that I know they charge BIG money for allowing people to add routes to
their RADB data base, I must say that I do view their past unhelpfulness
in a somewhat different light.

They would seem to have significant incentives to not give a damn what they
do, at least with the RADB.  And they certainly have no incentive to listen
to any "outsider" like me.  But I don't think that they could or would
ignore a reasonable request that came to them direct from the staff at
any RIR.  I will make some effort to see if I can find out about that.


Regards,
rfg


P.S.  Do dues-paying resource members of AFRINIC have to pay anything
extra to get routes added to the AFRINIC IRR?  Or is that free as part
of the basic membership services?