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Request IPv6
Hey LET,
hope that this is the right place to ask this question. I was wondering if it's possible to request IPv6 adress space as a private person and if yes what will I have to do to accomplish that?
My old computer science teacher had some IPv4 adresses registred on his (private-) name which is the reason that leads me to this question. I never asked him directly because I really didn't like him 
Regards,
Faulwurf
Comments
Yes, in ARIN's region, this is called end-user space. You can also request IPv6 space from Hurricane Electric to create an IPv6 tunnel (the space remains HE's though).
@MeanServers
but that would mean, in both cases, that the adress space is registred to my ISP or Hurricane Electric, right?
unlike domain names, and to a less extent phone numbers, IP addresses cannot be owned by end users.
this will become a big issue when IoT means buildings will want IPv6 allocations, which will not change when you move ISP.
If you get the space from your LIR (Local Internet Registry), I used ARIN as an example, depending on your location, you may need to request the space from a different organization; the space is yours and you can announce it where you want. If you get the space from Hurricane Electric, you can only use it for an IPv6 tunnel and it is not portable.
Getting an ISP to announce your own IPv6 range is another story. Not all ISPs will announce the space for you, especially if you are announcing it over a residential line. I would recommend contacting the provider you wish to announce this space with first or you may be stuck with a range you cannot use.
That's incorrect, end-users can own IP space just like an ISP, at least in the ARIN region. Not sure about other LIRs. I know a few people that have IPv6 end-user allocations.Sorry, I was wrong, the individual I know with end-user space has it registered through his company. Looks like only organizations can own end-user space as @Bruce said. You may want to contact your LIR for clarification. The easy solution is just start a business ;-)
I'm more familiar with RIPE, but I thought even with ARIN you had to be registered as a member to get allocations
Sorry, made the correction above. The individual I know that responded to my question said he obtained it through his company but isn't an ARIN member either, he just pays the $100 a year fee for the allocation (in addition to whatever he paid back in the day for the allocation initially). Sounds like only organizations can obtain space but if you register it through your company, it won't be a problem (obviously you need to make sure your company has a reason for the space, he said it wasn't hard though, especially for IPv6, ARIN essentially just gave it to him). Not an expert in end-user space so the OP should definitely contact their LIR for additional information.
@MeanServers @Bruce
Thanks for your answers.
The responsible LIR would be RIPE in my case, but as you both mentioned I'll need to register a company anyway...
Let's imagine I finally got my adress space, how much charge providers usually to announce ipv6 spaces, or is it possible to announce them on my own too?
Are you looking to announce it through a web hosting provider or through your home service? If you are trying to announce it through your residential provider, I would check with them first. I don't know of any residential providers here in the states that would announce your IP space, at least not for anything short of an exorbitant amount.
If you are announcing it through a web hosting provider, some may charge a reasonable fee, some may not charge, some may not be able to announce it at all. It definitely depends.
Regarding announcing them yourself, you would need to start a BGP session. I know of even less residential providers that would initiate a BGP session with what should be a home user than those that would announce your space for you in the first place. It is definitely a very expensive request if you want to use them at home. If you plan to announce them yourself through a data center or similar service along those lines, again, you need a BGP session.
In theory, you can find someone to announce them for you through a VPS and then start a GRE tunnel similar to how HE operates IPv6 tunnels. I don't know the exact details of accomplishing this myself as I am not a network engineer but it should work. I would just recommend getting a VPS that is close to your location and again, has the ability to announce the space on your behalf.
What you are asking is definitely possible but will come at a price, no matter what method you choose. If you decide to purchase IP transit, pricing can start at just $1,000. Doing a GRE tunnel to a VPS will be considerably cheaper but again, RIPE will charge you a fee for the IP addresses as well (maybe @Bruce can chime in here since he is more familiar with RIPE than I am) in addition to what you pay for the VPS.
Oh I forgot to add, if you plan on announcing the IP addresses yourself, you will need a AS Number as well to start the BGP session (also possible to use a private ASN depending on who you are peering with). Public AS Numbers will add to the costs obviously and you may only be able to get a 32-bit AS Number as 16-bit AS Numbers are in short supply.
First of all, how much address space do you need? You can only announce a /48 or bigger networks, so you need atleast as many /48 as you have locations, unless you're going to do anycasting. If you just need one or two /48, it will be very easy to justify them, atleast when talking about RIPE.
All of that is possible as a private person, I did that for myself. A few months ago I've got a /48 and my own ASN through a RIPE LIR, SinaVPS.ch (operated by @rauppe31) could do that for you too. Costs about 80$ once for your ASN and another 100$ per year for your /48 allocation.
The process is quite simple. First, you have to justify why you need those addresses. Just say that you want to remain provider-independent and as a /48 is the smallest possible size, you don't have any other choice. That justification will be accepted in one or two business days without any further problems or questions.
Additionally, you need to sign a contract between the RIPE LIR and yourself. You just have to sign once, scan the contract and (e)mail it back to the RIPE LIR of your choice. So, now all that european bureacracy stuff is done!
However, the tricky part starts now: You need to find hosters which provide you a BGP session, so that you're able to actually use your network. Also, you'll only get an ASN if you do multihoming, so you need atleast two peers as RIPE is going to check that 3 months after your allocation.
As a start, you could go for a free BGP tunnel from HE.net and NetAssist. It's definitely not the best solution, but you're able to get your own address space up and running without any additional costs everywhere. Shouldn't be used in production though, as there's a high latency and routing is no longer optimal.
If you want to use those addresses in production, it get's a lot harder if you have a tight budget. Not many hosters provide BGP sessions and many of them charge a lot to even set those things up for you. I for myself know HostVirtual, HostUS (both US) and Clouvider (UK).
OR, you could just get a subnet without an ASN and try to convince some provider that he should announce your subnet over his own ASN... I don't know a single hoster which does that though.
Feel free to ask me if there are any questions left.
the UK market is very much designed to make sure you pay existing providers fro using "their" IPs. you either pay for using IPs, or you go the whole hog with full BGP (expensive), which also means peering. peering is another subject
many US providers are sniffy about announcing other IP allocations. but at least it can be done with too much headache.
If dealing with the RIPE area I would also recommend RIPE LIR, SinaVPS.ch (operated by @rauppe31). I use him to obtain a ASN and /48 allocation in the RIPE area. Mines took a about fours days because of a little paperwork issues on my end but @rauppe31 was there when I needed him. Skype made it easy to chat with him no matter the time of day. Thats if you want to go the route of having your own ASN and allocation and just BGP session at some data centers.
Feel free to contact me if you just want a /48 allocation without the ASN or have any questions.
Oh wow thank you, that was exactly what I was looking for
So multihoming doesn't mean multiple locations ( datacenters ) but two or more connections to other AS's, right?
That would be fairly enough because I won't use them in production anyway, maybe later, but for now it's just for learning and dev purposes.
Yea, I would like to go the 'full' route. Did you use HE.net/NetAssist or did you got your own BGP-Sessions at some datacenters and if yes which one's?
If you just want to "play ISP" and to set up a few peerings you might as well look at a DN42 IPv6 allocation. Saves you all the money & paperwork ;-)
Yes I thought about that too, maybe I should start with that to learn more about the topic first but if I understand it right you will be jailed to the DN42 Network and I know at some point that I need to break out of this environment.
Once you know your way around DN42 you will be so much faster deploying / debugging your own network allocation in the Internet, especially if you're planning to set up your BGP/OSPF sessions with BIRD.
Correct - it's a great way to start learning BGP, but you'll be "restricted" to the DN42 network. Can be a lot of fun too though, as you're able to do a lot of peerings.
Your AS just needs to have atleast two peerings, that's a requirement for requesting a ASN. If you're going to grab a ASN from SinaVPS.ch, you have to specify two AS you're going to peer with. In my case, I just specified HE and NetAssist.
Then Hurricane Electrics and NetAssist should be perfect. You should pay attention where Hurricane Electrics offers BGP-ready POPs, speaking of today the following locations are available:
Your VPS should be close to one of those POPs if you want to have a small latency. For example, you could pick some DigitalOcean boxes in their Frankfurt location, the ping to Hurricane Electric's POP is about 1ms. (They're in exactly the same DC)
I've started by using Hurricane Electrics and NetAssist LLC. The second company can be utterly slow though in regards of replies, so keep that in mind. Some hosts which offer BGP sessions as far as I know:
Some of them might charge something though, so you have to ask them if interested. You could also try contacting @William, maybe he could provide you a sub-delegated /48 PA or something like that for free, so you would just need your ASN.
Sure. Free /48 (up to /44) PA you can have your DC(s)/ISP(s) announce, if desired also with a long term contract fixing zeroed price permanently with the entity behind it (setup fees apply) - Can also do RIPE PI space (100EUR yearly) and ASNs (100EUR setup, no recurring until RIPE changes their mind) via a partner LIR.
Space can be requested online:
https://ip6.im/get-started.html (beta)
Shortly Tunnelbroker services available (routed /48) (alpha), BGP over it might follow at one point.
i'm working on a list located here:
https://ip6.im/recommended-isp.html
it's far from done yet (and i'm happy to list more, just pm me the hosts and their prices for announce or BGP setup, i'm currently not listing hosts that charge recurring for announce)
LOL, all of 2 providers. hopefully more will follow
You laugh now, but besides colo it's fairly rare that someone announces space...
+1 for SinaVps.ch, we used him too for our ASN.
what about a list of "avoid these providers, because they refuse to announce". it would be a long list. and the ones who will, generally charge the same per month as renting their IPs (effectively the same as refusing to announce)
maybe there's an opportunity there. LET-provider co-op, share costs of running BGP & peering. unfortunately it would be blacklisted by existing providers, at least in the UK.
Goscomb is good in UK, traffic is not cheap though - Most even refused to announce IPv4 below a locked rack, what a weird place.
FITVPS ( @rds ), Romania
It may sound almost the same to you, but no, we are not in Romania
If you're not talking about colo, probably all providers minus 20 to 30 hosts. I think the other way around ("whitelist") makes more sense.
Cool page, I especially like that step-by-step form. Do you also offer those long term contracts to private persons or just to companies? Might be worth to put some information about that on the page.
Oh, sorry! Fixed that above
We are more than happy to announce client subjects, setup BGP or even help obtaining ASN and IPv6 PI, for both VMs and Dedicated Servers. If anyone is interested please PM
For anyone, i just have to charge something for the time involved and postal delivery (if desired). Will put some info on the page as well.
I have a HE Tunnel setup for my BGP session but currently not using. The Providers we are using right now but setup the bgp session for free and great reply time with support.
Currently using:
FITVPS ( @rds )
Crowncloud KVM Service
I don't agree with the statement that it's hard to find providers doing BGP with you. If you don't choose the cheapest mass-provider, and if you're willing to pay a little bit more (but still an acceptable price), it shouldn't be a problem to find someone.