RIPEstat users saw a lot of changes throughout 2013, from support for new query types, such as countries and hostnames, to a completely revamped website. Below we summarise some of the most exciting advancements from the year, and give you a sneak peek of the things we think you might find useful in 2014. As always, please let us know what you think!
2013 Usage Stats
In 2013, RIPEstat has seen an impressive increase in usage. Over one million visitors from unique IP addresses accessed RIPEstat by the end of December 2013, making a total of 134 million requests. 9,500 of these visitors were logged in to RIPEstat via RIPE NCC access.
The most popular widgets, which received the most queries on a month-to-month basis, were Whois Matches , Geoloc , Routing Status , and Registry Browser .
Revamped Website
With plans for RIPEstat to become the main point of access to the myriad of data made available by the RIPE NCC, we decided the RIPEstat webpages needed a fresh look and some new content. We revamped the site to make it easier to find the information you're looking for, including:
- More information about the different available interfaces and data sources
- An expanded FAQ
- A roadmap that details current development
- More data analyses of major network events
- A matrix of all available widgets and which resources they support
We also integrated the webpages into the rest of the www.ripe.net site to allow you to more seamlessly access the RIPE NCC's different data and services.
Queries for Hostnames and Countries
Early in 2013, RIPEstat took a big leap forward by expanding the type of queries it supports and making resource-related information for hostnames and countries available. There are several widgets that display this information, such as the Country Routing Status and DNS Chain widgets (described below).
In the future, more widgets that return results for hostnames and countries will become available.
Quering by Keywords
Users can now get helpful suggestions when querying RIPEstat for a variety of different keywords, such as number resources, hostnames, country names, network events and others. A list of suggestions will appear along with related information for each entry. For example, typing in "google" will present a list of suggestions for the google.com hostname in different locations along with associated ASNs.
Consolidating Other Data Sources Into RIPEstat
As part of our plans to make RIPEstat the main access point for RIPE NCC data , we've begun making more data sets available via RIPEstat.
To start, we've integrated the Routing Informaiton Service (RIS) interfaces into RIPEstat. These interfaces include the RIS Dashboard, ASInUse, RIS PrefixInUse, and the RISwhois web interface. Although data is still collected by RIS route collectors, this data is now made available via various widgets within RIPEstat. This detailed RIPE Labs article provides an overview of which RIPEstat widgets display which routing information.
New Widgets
The popular BGPlay tool is back! Developed in partnership with the Compunet Research Lab of Roma Tre University and integrated into RIPEstat, this widget allows you to visualise changes in BGP routes associated with an Internet number resource (IP prefix or origin AS) or a group of resources. It provides a graphical representation of the links across all AS paths between the BGP collection points and the target resource(s). It also animates this graph over time via standard 'play' controls. Find out more about what BGPlay can do for you in
this RIPE Labs article
.
Users can see the development of a country's Internet number resources over time, including Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs), IPv4 prefixes and IPv6 prefixes. More information about the Country Routing Statistics widget can be found in this detailed RIPE Labs article .
Finding abuse contact information is now easier than ever. Users can see potential abuse contacts connected to a given IP address, along with a rating of how useful the contact is likely to be in reporting abuse. More information about the Abuse Contact Finder widget can be found in this detailed RIPE Labs article .
This widget displays which IP addresses - both IPv4 and IPv6 - are related to a hostname. It also shows whether the given IP address reversely resolves in DNS to a different hostname(s).
When entering an IP address or hostname in RIPEstat, the DNS Chain widget will display a graphic depiction of the relationship between related hostnames and IP addresses, as found in DNS. You can find out more in this RIPE Labs article .
We integrated RIPE Atlas data into RIPEstat with a widget that shows all RIPE Atlas probes within the geographical region associated with an Internet number resource. You can also see whether any RIPE Atlas user-defined measurements are targeting those probes in the new RIPE Atlas Measurement Targets widget. Learn more in this RIPE Labs article .
Mobile Website
We developed a new site tailored specifically for mobile users, which lets users choose from the full list of RIPEstat widgets and displays each widget in a simplified format on its own dedicated page.
The mobile site is available at stat.ripe.net/m Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Updated RIPEstat App
We released a new version of the RIPEstat app available for Apple users that is fully iOS 6.1 ready. The new version included three new plugins: Address Space Hierarchy, Abuse Contact Finder and Routing History. In addition, all plugins were upgraded to use the latest version of the RIPEstat data API. You can find more information on the RIPEstat Mobile page.
The RIPEstat app is available from the Apple iTunes Store.
Meetings and Outreach
- At the RIPE 66 Meeting in Dublin in May, RIPEstat users had a chance to meet some of the RIPEstat developers face to face and ask questions, request new features, and tell us what you think
- Similarly, we had a chance to meet with many of you at RIPE 67 Meeting in Athens in October, when we demonstrated the latest features and got some helpful feedback from you
- We gave an overview of RIPEstat at the MENOG 13 Meeting in Kuwait in September with a successful hands-on tutorial
Performance
We made a special effort in 2013 to focus on improving the consistency and quality of the data presented in RIPEstat, and worked to improve its overall performance.
Future Plans
We're always interested in what our users would find the most helpful, and look to you to let us know what you'd like to see. To help make this easier, the RIPE NCC created roadmaps for a number of the services we offer that detail which features have been requested, which are being planned, which are in progress, and which have recently been delivered. Take a look at the RIPEstat Roadmap and let us know what you think. A few of our main priorities for 2014 include:
- Making RIPEstat easier to access and use with continual improvements to the user interface
- Further integrating RIPEstat with other tools and RIPE NCC Services, such as the LIR Portal and RIPE Database
- Integrating more external data sets into RIPEstat (please get in touch if you have ideas)
- Making more and more of the RIPE NCC's data sets available via RIPEstat, in line with the RIPE NCC's plans to make RIPEstat "the" interface for accessing RIPE NCC data (read more about these plans in this RIPE Labs article )
- Developing webinars to help our users get the most out of RIPEstat
Feedback
As always, we want to hear from you! You can offer feedback on RIPEstat anytime through one of our dedicated channels:
- The comment box on the RIPEstat website allows you to post comments if you are a registered RIPE NCC member
- The feedback button at the top right corner of each of the RIPEstat widgets
- The Measurement Analysis and Tools (MAT) Working Group Mailing List allows for more in-depth discussions
- Private feedback can be sent to stat [at] ripe [dot] net
- The #ripestat tag on Twitter is used by the RIPE NCC to discuss and announce RIPEstat developments
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