Dear Colleagues,

From 15th May, new person objects must have a NIC-handle. Normally, RIPE nic-hdl's are used. RIPE format NIC-handle's may be obtained using the "AUTO-1" process (see below).

If a person being registered in the RIPE database currently holds a registered NIC-handle assigned by the the InterNIC or the APNIC, it can be used as the NIC-handle in the RIPE database person object. If, in conjunction with the work on registry database exchange taking place in the RIDE working group of the IETF, the list of databases, and in particular the list of acceptable NIC-handles should be expanded or otherwise modified, the above statement will of course be modified accordingly. If you have anymore questions, please contact <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>. Regards, Ambrose Magee ____________________________ RIPE Database Administration. How to get a RIPE NIC-Handle ------------------------- You can get a RIPE NIC-handle by putting the following in the NIC handle field of the person object update: nic-hdl: AUTO-1 OR nic-hdl: AUTO-1YourInitials The second case advises the database software to use YourInitials (no more then 4 characters) for build- ing the NIC handle while the first case asks the database software to find the initials itself. You can use the same identifiers (AUTO-1 or AUTO-1YourInitials) in the same update message in other objects as a reference. The database software will then fill in the freshly assigned NIC handles in the objects. Note that you can also use other numbers (example: AUTO-2) so that you can update more person objects and objects that reference the persons in one E-mail message. Example: domain: over.ripe.net admin-c: AUTO-1 tech-c: AUTO-2 [ ... stuff deleted ...] person: Ambrose Magee nic-hdl: AUTO-1 [ ... stuff deleted ...] role: RIPE DBM nic-hdl: AUTO-2 [ ... stuff deleted ...] N.B. To obtain a NIC-handle for a role object, use the same procedure as for a person object. Further information is available from: <http://www.ripe.net/docs/ripe-153.html> <ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-153.ps> <ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-153.txt>