Comment by dark-star | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dark-star | Hacker News Reader

As someone who recently did this: it's much easier (and cheaper) for IPv6.

All you need is a PI subnet (PI = Provider Independent). There are providers that give you for example up to 5 such subnets (each a /48) for free. I use route48.org (not affiliated) but there are others.

Next, you need an ASN. You can't get these as an individual directly, but only through a sponsoring LIR (Local Internet Registry). You can find LIRs through RIPEs homepage (e.g. https://www.ripe.net/participate/member-support/list-of-memb...), I simply checked them out one after another to find out how/when/if they would sell ASN registrations to individuals. I settled with a nonprofit (IN-BERLIN e.V) that I joined, and who offer ASN registrations for a flat 50€.

Then you need a peering, usually your LIR also offers that (ask them), but you'd probably need to host your hardware in their datacenter for that to work (additional costs/month). Then there are providers like the aforementioned route48.org who allow you to peer from anywhere through a WireGuard (or GRE) tunnel, which means you can host your BGP router at home if you want (mine runs on a RaspberryPi 1st gen and has the full BGP table, which, admittedly, is a bit smaller for IPv6 than it would be for IPv4)

So yes, it's doable even for an individual, but my suggestion is to use IPv6.

Could you provide more details about IN-BERLIN ? I've took a look at the website, it's confusing, and they ask registration via post/fax, explicitly saying they do not accept e-mail. Which form have you used? (probably my issue is with DE translation).

Is there any other sponsoring LIR recommended? Thank you.

IN BERLIN is probably best suited for people in Germany. It is a "Verein" ("registered association", something that I don't think exists in many other countries) which is run by dozens of volunteers (hence the "non-profit" part). So basically you join the "Verein" for a (small) monthly fee and are expected to participate in the activities of the Verein. This is probably also why they require you to join via mail (running a "Verein" is serious business in Germany, you have to have a charter, appoint a treasurer, hold regular meetings/votes for board members, have someone type a protocol of these meetings, etc.)... If you want them to register anything with RIPE they will also require you to send them a scan/copy of a valid ID (although that can be done via E-Mail) but that is because of RIPE policies as I understand it.

Joining gives you (in this case) also access to some "old-school" things like webspace, shell access, nntp, ftp, ... (similar to what for example SDF.org offers). They were originally there to help people getting access to the internet and building a website (think 90's internet), but they also do housing for individuals nowadays, and help educate people (locally in Berlin) on how the internet works, etc.

I have checked some other LIRs but they often only provide RIPE registration to their "customers" (what that means depends on the LIR but usually you have to have some hosting with them or have an ongoing project that they do for you, or something like that), so for individuals, I think non-profits or "Vereine" are probably the easiest to join

PS: yes, the website was a bit confusing for me too, basically you choose the cheapest offering ("IN BERLIN S" for 5€/month) and use the "Antrag für IN-Berlin S/M/L" from https://in-berlin.de/provider/antrag.html... However, as I understand it, they also require you to provide a "SEPA mandate" so that they can collect the fees directly from your bank account, and I think if you don't live in Germany that might prove difficult.

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