This policy proposal was revised by the author. Click here to view the current policy proposal text.

The version below was moved to this page on 3/22/04.

Background:

RWhois, a distributed lookup service, was created in part to allow ISPs locally operate and control their own reassignment information. The purpose of placing this data in a RWhois server was two-fold:

1) Allow RIR staff to examine reassignment utilization
2) Allow access to the general public on reassignment information.

Many ISPs have opted to use RWhois servers for their reassignment information over sending SWIPs to ARIN. But some of the ISPs who have selected to use RWhois
servers for their reassignment information have not kept the servers operational 24x7, contents of the database up to-date, or are restricting access only to ARIN staff.
This lack of a uniform set of operations of RWhois servers has resulted in confusion for end-users and ARIN staff. The following policy proposal will describe the set of minimal
requirements of operating a RWhois server for those ISPs who decide to use RWhois to manage their IP reassignment information.

In the future, there may be other distributed lookup services that ARIN may allow ISPs to use. These new services must be approved by ARIN before being allowed to serve as a repository for reassignment information.

Policy Proposal:

The proposed minimal requirements for an organization to setup a distributed information service to advertise reassignment information are:

The distributed information service must be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to both the general public and ARIN staff. The service is allowed reasonable downtime for server maintenance according to generally accepted community standards.

The distributed information service must allow public access to reassignment information. The service may restrict the number of queries allowed per time interval from a host or subnet to defend against DDOS attacks, remote mirroring attempts, and other nefarious acts.

The distributed information service must return reassignment information for the IP address queried. The service may allow for privacy protections for customers. Minimally, the service must provide only the person's name, city, state, zip code, and country. The service shall follow ARIN's privacy policy for publishing data in a public forum.

The distributed information service may return results for non-IP queries.

The distributed information service must respond to a query with the minimal set of attributes per object as defined by ARIN staff.

The distributed information service may include optional attributes per object that are defined locally.

The distributed information service must return results that are up-to-date on reassignment information.

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The version below was moved to this page on 9/22/2003.

Background:

RWhois, a distributed lookup service, was created in part to allow ISP's locally operate and control their own reassignment information. The purpose of placing this data in a RWhois server was two-fold:

1) Allow RIR staff to examine reassignment utilization

2) Allow access to the general public on reassignment information.

Many ISPs have opted to use RWhois servers for their reassignment information over sending SWIPs to ARIN. But some of the ISP's who have selected to use RWhois servers for their reassignment information have not kept the servers operational 24x7, contents of the database up to-date, or are restricting access only to ARIN staff. This lack of a uniform set of operations of RWhois servers has resulted in confusion for end-users and ARIN staff. The following policy proposal will describe the set of minimal requirements of operating a RWhois server for those ISPs who decide to use RWhois to manage their IP
reassignment information.

In the future, there may be other distributed lookup services that ARIN may allow ISPs to use. These new services must be approved by ARIN before being allowed to serve as a repository for reassignment information.

Policy Proposal:

The proposed minimal requirements for an ISP to setup a distributed information service to advertise reassignment information are:

The distributed information service must be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to both the general public and ARIN staff. The service is allowed reasonable downtime for server maintenance according to generally accepted community standards.

The distributed information service must allow public access to reassignment information. The service may restrict the number of queries allowed per time interval from a host or subnet to defend against DDOS attacks, remote mirroring attempts, and other nefarious acts.

The distributed information service must return reassignment information for the IP address queried. The service may allow for privacy protections for customers. Minimally, the service must provide only the person's name, city, state, zip code, and country. The street address will be replaced by the words "Private Residence," and the upstream's POC will serve as the customer's contact.

The distributed information service may return results for non-IP queries.

The distributed information service must respond to a query with the minimal set of attributes per object as defined by ARIN staff.

The distributed information service may include optional attributes per object that are defined locally.

The distributed information service must return results that are up-to-date on reassignment information.

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Earlier version:

Background:

RWhois was created in part to allow ISP's locally operate and control their own reassignment information. The purpose of placing this data in a RWhois server was two-fold:

1) Allow RIR staff to examine reassignment utilization
2) Allow access to the general public on reassignment information.

Many ISPs have opted to use RWhois servers for their reassignment information over sending SWIPs to ARIN. But some of the ISP's who have selected to use RWhois servers for their reassignment information have not kept the servers operational 24x7, contents of the database up to-date, or are restricting access only to ARIN staff. This lack of a uniform set of operations of RWhois servers has resulted in confusion for end-users and ARIN staff.

Policy Proposal:

Therefore, it is proposed a set of minimal requirements of operating a RWhois server for those ISPs who decide to use RWhois to manage their IP reassignment information be established and enforced.

The proposed minimal RWhois requirements are:

The RWhois server must be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to both the general public and ARIN staff.

The RWhois server must allow public access to reassignment information. The ISP may restrict the number of queries allowed per time interval from a host or subnet to defend against DDOS attacks, remote mirroring attempts, and other nefarious acts.

The RWhois server must return reassignment information for the IP address queried. The RWhois server may follow the privacy protections for customers as described in the multi-homed policy. The RWhois server must give customer information as described in the multi-homed policy to ARIN staff.

The RWhois server may return results for non-IP queries.

The RWhois server must respond to a query with the minimal set of attributes per object as defined by ARIN staff.

The RWhois server may include optional attributes per object that are defined by the operator.

The RWhois server must return results that are up-to-date on reassignment information.