2014-05-15 Business internet access that isn't
Some providers are selling "Business" internet access, which is really consumer grade internet access with the port restrictions removed.
For example, Cox Cable in Orange County, California, is selling an internet access package delivered over their cable infrastructure. This access does not include:
- Native IPv6 access
- Reverse dns names
- Rwhois or SWIP records for address space reassignment
Native IPv6 access
Business internet access includes at a minimum the ability to run your own web (and other) servers. Given the lack of IPv4 address space in many parts of the world, and the rise of mobile devices, your web server should really be accessible over IPv6. Cox seems to think the lack of IPv6 connectivitiy is not a problem. I disagree. APNIC, RIPE and ARIN are all down to their last /8 equivalent available for allocation, and are essentially rationing new address allocations. See https://www.arin.net/resources/request/countdown_phase4.html for details.
Reverse dns names
Business internet access generally includes the ability to run your own mail servers. Many (most?) mail servers won't talk to you unless you have proper reverse dns setup. Cox is happy to allocate a /26 netblock, but will only setup reverse dns for one single ip address. This seems to be a policy decision, rather than based on anything technical, since the amount of work for them is identicial in either case. They could easily setup reverse dns for the entire /26 block with one single line of configuration:
$GENERATE 0-63 $ CNAME host$.customer-domain.tld.
See page 6 for details.
Rwhois or SWIP records for address space reassignment
Arin requires reassignment records via either rwhois or SWIP. https://www.arin.net/resources/request/reassignments.html Cox apparently does not think this applies to them.