ripe-141 web interface

Hi,

Thanks for the interest in and discussion about our proposed release of 
the web interface for ripe-141 forms. We think there is sufficient 
interest to proceed, and would like to clarify what we are planning:

First, we will write and install a public web page at RIPE NCC which 
allows the entry of a ripe-141 form for *syntax* checking. The output 
will be a plain text page which can be pasted into an email.

Second, we will release the source code of the above, with an added 
hook to allow sending of the output by email. LIRs will be able to 
install adaptations of this for use by their customers to check and 
submit their requests to the LIR, and by their hostmasters to check and 
submit their requests to RIPE NCC. The LIRs will be free to use this 
code in any other systems they have.

We will implement a public page at RIPE NCC first to allow us to debug 
the software before it is made publicly available, and understand any 
problems the LIRS have in the implementation. We would hope to release 
the software soon after it is written.

We cannot release the full code that we use here at the RIPE NCC, 
because it does some checks that we can only make available for 
requests that are within a registry's assignment window. These checks 
include looking for policy problems (as opposed to pure syntax 
problems) such as reserved addresses or inefficient address space 
usage. This is something that we'd like to be able to track. For
example if a registry sends a request through the robot and it gives an 
error that the addresses are not being used efficiently, and then they 
decide to just increase the numbers everywhere to make it look more 
efficient, we'd like to be able to track this (yes, we have seen this 
happen). Therefore we will only make this part of the code available 
for the requests that are within a registry's assignment window and do 
not have to be sent to the RIPE NCC for approval. Therefore, we can 
only make this available on our web server (as part of the third stage).

The third stage would be a public web page at RIPE NCC with some form 
of password authentication, which would allow LIRs to *fully* check 
assignments both smaller and larger than their assignment window, with 
larger assignments being sent on to the RIPE NCC hostmasters.

We hope this meets most people's requirements.

Inetnum database object submission thorugh a web page is being 
discussed in the db-wg. Therefore if you are interested in this topic, 
please get involved in that working group.

To clarify the setup here at RIPE NCC: All mail to hostmaster at ripe.net 
is handled by the 'autohmdist' robot. This robot calls the 'autohm' 
robot to check and respond to ripe-141 requests, which we are 
discussing here.  Both robots add messages to the hostmaster ticketing 
system, 'rtt'. Human hostmasters read and respond to messages through 
rtt.

Paula Caslav
Registration Services Manager
RIPE NCC

Maldwyn Morris
Software Manager
RIPE NCC