NIC Handle's postfix

==> From: Suwat Panitkullawat <suwat at rs.thnic.net> 
==>       Wed, 15 Jan 1997 21:43:39 +0700 (GMT+7:00) 

> From instruction in RIPE's configuration file.  There is a suggestion that
> we should not use NIC handle's postfix differrent from the source name.
> 
> Can someone explain me why?  Are there any serious errors if I do so.

Depends on your definition of "serious" :-)
If you set up your own database, with source "SUWAT" for example, but you 
choose to keep the "RIPE" postfix for NIC handles, you might be able to 
register a record for yourself, with handle "SP-RIPE".  However, there is 
already an "SP-RIPE" in the RIPE database, causing some confusion.

The idea of a NIC handle is to have a unique key pointing to a person.
Using the "source:" as the postfix helps you identify in which database the
handle is registered and avoids conflicting registrations for the same key.

To be fair it's also a bit of a kludge, but probably the only thing that 
will work until we have a truly global IRR.  And may facilitate merging
existing operational databases once a global IRR is there, avoiding NIC
handle clashes across databases.
Of course, the postfix trick only works as long as the "source:"'s are
allocated in a unique way.

		Hope this helps,
		Steven