>>>> Joe Abley <jabley(a)clear.co.nz> - 10/14/98 6:24 PM >>>
>On Wed, Oct 14, 1998 at 05:42:38PM +1300, Chris Wedgwood wrote:
>>
>> Do people, when they move house, get pissed at telecom that they
>> can't alway take their phone number with them? Is telecom being
>> unreasonable here?
>
>They will, actually, as long as your new connection is off the same
>exchange.
Funnily enough, this is a matter that Saturn is very aware of :-|.
Yes, they do, and yes, they are. At least, within the same local area.
Just to be awkward, consider a cell phone number. The cell networks are set up to divorce indentity from locality. Landline telephone networks are less well set up, but still capable. In fact the situation is much as for IP---the exchanges have to maintain lookup tables that say "send *this* number *there*", rather than using rule based routing.
Where IP and the telephone system differ is that this cost is incurred only at call setup (which is why TCNZ's current policy is iniquitous) whereas IP routes individual packets. But that's what caches are for.
Back to the subject at hand. Back when we set up the VUW network, we had about 12 (from memory) machines set up using an invalid IP network 'plucked from the air'. This was before the private address ranges. When we got our class B (where we argued that although we did not have more than 254 machines, we would some day. Try that now :-). I recall the pain in moving. For only 12 machines.
When I got here I found (invalid) IP addresses hard coded in all sorts of unfortunate places. Most had been set up by 3rd party equipment suppliers. Some were due to lazy (and IP-unaware) programmers.
The point I am making is: Do NOT underestimate the pain caused by IP renumbering. Now that everyone and his dog is using IP, all sorts of pieces of equipment you might not expect have addresses buried deep with in them, and 18 mo down the track this fact is unknown to the current keepers of the key.
--
Michael Newbery Technology Manager Saturn Communications
Tel: +64-4-915 5102 Mobile:021-642 957 Fax:+64-4-939 5100
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