Intelligence
Latest Articles
Latest intelligence on infrastructure operators, policy decisions, market moves, and digital power shifts.
Story
RIPE Wants to Clear 60% of Its Routing Attic. Write the Eviction Rule First.
RIPE NCC has proposed two new ways to remove old non-authoritative routing records. The projected cut is large; the matching test and the operator’s right to keep a record still need their final design.
History
eBay Let Strangers Rate Strangers. Then It Had to Police the Raters.
Pierre Omidyar asked AuctionWeb users in February 1996 to praise good trading partners and make complaints in public. By eBay’s 1998 annual filing, the company had rules against self-praise and retaliatory ratings, a waiting period for new accounts and staff investigating misuse.…
Story
APNIC Counts 17.65 Months of Cover. It Still Has to Price the Storm.
APNIC can put a number on its financial cushion to two decimal places. The rule for how much cushion the registry needs when a real shock arrives is scheduled for next year.
History
AOL Paid $287 Million for ICQ. Mirabilis Had No Revenue.
In June 1998 AOL bought a chat habit before it bought a chat business. Mirabilis had millions of active trial users and no revenue; AOL pictured a desktop portal where that habit might finally pay.
Story
Chile Looks 9.5% Local Through One VPN, 64.2% Through Another
APNIC published a study in which the same web test gave Chile two radically different domestic-server pictures. The measurement instrument is shaping the country score.
Story
Verisign Asked ARIN for a Dependency Map. The Ticket Is Still Open.
A year after a major resource holder asked ARIN to show what its critical services depend on and how quickly they can recover, the public suggestion remains open. A maintenance timetable is useful. A map of the failure chain would be better.
Story
ARIN Put Up to $5 Million Behind a Registry Fix. What Counts as Fixed?
ARIN’s trustees approved a reserve-funded control-plane project after a real registry error. The spending cap and vote are public. The test that will tell resource holders what the investment actually repaired should be just as visible.
History
Google Bought Deja's Usenet Years. Readers Initially Searched Months.
In February 2001 Google acquired Deja.com's archive back to 1995. The new Groups search launched with more than six months of posts. The older conversations had changed hands faster than they became searchable.
History
Google Bought Deja’s Usenet Archive. Search Opened With Only Months of It.
On 12 February 2001, Google said it had acquired Deja’s entire Usenet archive dating back to 1995. The new Google Groups beta could search more than six months of messages. An archive can change hands in a day; making its contents available to readers is a different job.
Story
ARIN’s RPKI Exit Door Still Leads to a Help Desk
An operator put a 515-prefix migration problem on ARIN’s desk in 2022. Four years later the request remains open, and ARIN’s public switching instructions still end with a call to Registration Services. The certificate authority can change hands. The handover record is harder to…
Story
APNIC Puts a Q3 Date on KYC/KYB. Members Still Need the Error Playbook.
APNIC has approved a new account-holder verification system for 2027. The timetable is unusually crisp. The public account of what happens when a legitimate company and its documents disagree is considerably thinner.
History
CyberCash Hid the Card Number. The Acquiring Bank Could Hand It Back.
CyberCash's 1996 protocol routed a customer's card details past the shop and into a payment server. The shop still had two ways to see the number. One depended on its bank; the other left a record of the request.
History
MapQuest Put Directions on Your Screen. Its Map Factory Could Run on Someone Else’s Server.
The familiar late-1990s MapQuest page was only one place where its routes appeared. In 1999, a business could show MapQuest maps on its own website, pay for a high-volume service hosted by MapQuest, or run MapQuest software on its own server. The road on the screen looked simple…
Story
LACNIC’s Travel Line Rises $48,000. Its Training Line Falls $50,000.
LACNIC’s strategy puts technical skills near the center of its regional mission. Its published budgets move two conspicuous accounts in opposite directions. The missing item is the bridge from those accounts to the people and capabilities the strategy promises to build.
APRICOT
APRICOT Opens at $300 for Everyone. The Member Gate Appears on 16 November.
APRICOT 2027 has opened registration with a two-week price truce: a conference pass costs USD 300 whether or not the buyer belongs to APNIC or APNOG. Once that window closes, the same event charges USD 350 to members and USD 500 to everyone else. The clock, more than the…
Story
ARIN Still Has a 2011 Request to Put Its API Keys on a Shorter Leash
A single automation key can do useful work in several corners of the registry. Fifteen years ago, a member asked ARIN to let each key carry narrower powers. The public ticket is still open, and the last recorded cost estimate belongs to 2012.
History
Tripod Gave Away Homepages. Lycos Bought the Builder Before Its Licensable Version Reached Beta.
By 1998, Tripod's members could publish pages for free with working tools. Lycos acquired the service, its audience and a much larger plan: package an advanced builder for other companies. The live pages and the unfinished product were different assets, with different risks.
Story
APNIC Wants a Public Registry Rehearsal by Q3 2027. Its Working Testbed Speaks NIR.
APNIC's board has put a public test environment for key registry interfaces on its 2027 calendar. An NIR API testbed already shows how a narrow rehearsal can work. The wider promise will be judged by what users can actually try before APNIC changes the live record.
History
The First Internet Bank Needed a Bank Approval. The Internet Was the Delivery Route.
Security First Network Bank opened for online business in 1995. Its regulator's record drew a line that the “virtual bank” label blurred: approval was needed to create the bank, while the Internet was a way for that bank to serve customers.
Story
RIPE’s Policy Kitchen Has 24 Regulars. The Registry Keeps Reading the Recipes.
At RIPE 93, a veteran policy entity counted a small active discussion core and proposed a manual that initially changes no rule. The argument is about who supplies meaning when the community leaves gaps: the authors, the readers, or RIPE NCC staff trying to run the registry…