[Apologies for duplicates] Dear Colleagues, With the publication of RFC 5396, the IETF has standardised the representation of all Autonomous System (AS) Numbers in the ASPLAIN format. This covers both 16-bit and 32-bit AS Numbers. The previous ASDOT format is now obsolete. The RIPE NCC plans to start using the ASPLAIN format on March 25, 2009. From that time, any AS Numbers or references must be in the ASPLAIN format. The ASDOT format will no longer be accepted in RIPE NCC services such as the LIR Portal and the RIPE Database. The update of RIPE NCC systems to ASPLAIN will take place on Wednesday, March 25, according to the following schedule (all times are in UTC and are approximations): 7:00 1. Updates to the RIPE Database via webupdates and syncupdates will be disabled. Mail updates will be queued. After the update mechanism has been stopped, all objects containing an AS Number in ASDOT format will be automatically converted to identical objects with the AS Number in ASPLAIN format. Technical details of the conversion process will be published shortly. 2. The LIR Portal will be stopped. 10:00 The RIPE Database will now accept queries in ASPLAIN format; it will no longer accept queries in ASDOT format. 12:00 1. The LIR portal will be restarted. Any reference to an AS Number should be made in ASPLAIN format. 2. Any mail updates to the RIPE Database submitted after 7:00 will be processed. Webupdates and syncupdates will be enabled again. The Routing Information Service (RIS) will not be updated on March 25. If you use AS Numbers internally, or with other tools that have not yet been updated, you may be interested in a conversion tool that has been provided by APNIC. This tool converts ASDOT format AS Numbers to ASPLAIN and back. It can be downloaded from: http://www.apnic.net/cgi-bin/convert-asn.pl If you have any concerns about this matter, please send an email to <asn32@ripe.net> Kind regards, Henk Uijterwaal Senior Project Manager, RIPE NCC -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Henk Uijterwaal Email: henk.uijterwaal(at)ripe.net RIPE Network Coordination Centre http://www.amsterdamned.org/~henk P.O.Box 10096 Singel 258 Phone: +31.20.5354414 1001 EB Amsterdam 1016 AB Amsterdam Fax: +31.20.5354445 The Netherlands The Netherlands Mobile: +31.6.55861746 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------