Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Are IP addresses free?

[ewhost]

Some companies (such as FDCServers) are offering free IP addresses with their dedicated servers.

1) Do these companies get IP addresses for free?
2) If not, how much does it cost them?
3) How come some companies charge and some don't for IP addresses?

[lumbyjj]

No, they have to pay Arin annually based on the size of their allocation.

[SMachiz]

Originally posted by lumbyjj
No, they have to pay Arin annually based on the size of their allocation.

ARIN is only in the US. Other areas are determined by their Regionial Internet Registries.

As I imagine you're enquiring about US companies specifically, ARIN's rate structures are outlined here: http://www.arin.net/billing/fee_schedule.html.

Regards,
Sam

[CritikalDOTnet]

These companies that give it for free most likely already structured the cost into their server pricing.

[tamasrepus]

Most who give IP addresses for free give them out one by one, per-request basis.

If you notice those who charge for them, they tend to give you whole subnets (like a whole /29) along with a Virtual LAN.

The former you'll waste fewer IP addresses (as few people practically need more than one or two). With the latter who will use have to use 4-8 (or more) IP addresses per server, though with a much more sophisticated network setup.

[TheHstvGuy]

Most companies who give out IP's for free structure them into their pricing. That's why most lower priced shared plans are on shared IP's.

[BlueWave]

RIPE is the same as Arin (except the pricing!). You pay an annual fee based on the size of your allocation and number of AS's you have. Remember all these company's required justification for there use so you cant just park them on your server.

Stuart

[dkitchen]

Technically IP's are free, nobody makes profit out of it, ARIN, RIPE, etc just charge to cover their administration costs.

[tamasrepus]

Originally posted by RazorBlue - Dan
Technically IP's are free, nobody makes profit out of it, ARIN, RIPE, etc just charge to cover their administration costs.

Abuse prevention as well.

[robinbalen]

RIPE is the same as Arin (except the pricing!). You pay an annual fee based on the size of your allocation and number of AS's you have.

As Dan says, technically the IPs are free (and we're not allowed to charge for them), but we pay RIPE a membersip fee and are allowed to charge an administrative fee to customers for their IP requirements. It amounts to the same thing

RIPE charge according to what size band you are in. There is an equation that they use to depreciate the "cost" of resources over time, so a /19 obtained 4 years ago counts less than a /19 obtained 1 year ago. It's all quite complicated, and things like an ASN "cost" the same as a /20 IPv4 allocation.

I don't particularly like how the bands are worked out. For example, someone with 3x /19 could be in the same band (and therefore paying as much) as someone who has 10x /19s. Note this is just an example -- and you wouldn't have 10x /19s, you'd have much bigger allocations, but the billing band would be the same anyway.

More info here:

http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/billing2005.html#algo