Alun Davies
Based in Amsterdam
Articles
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Based in Amsterdam
Hailing from a research background in philosophy, linguistics and computer science, I came to the RIPE NCC back in 2016 and took on my role as the RIPE Labs Editor in 2020. My job is to help keep all corners of the Internet community informed and engaged on developments and events that continue to shape the Internet as we know it. As RIPE Labs editor, I'm here to help you to get your ideas across on RIPE Labs. Whether you have questions about how to create a new article or profile, need help preparing a draft article for publication, or would just like to discuss whether your idea would be a good fit for RIPE Labs, don't hesitate to get in touch.
NOGs on NOGs
The RIPE NCC recently held two Open House events to bring together people who help organise NOGs, which bring together people who help operate the Internet in particular parts the world.
Facebook Down and Out in BGPlay
Following the Facebook outage that took place on 4 October, we saw people looking to BGPlay to get a better view of what went on. Here's a look at what the RIPEstat visualisation has to show us about the event in question.
Six on IPv6
This Sunday marks nine years since the World IPv6 Launch took place, an event coordinated by ISOC. To celebrate, to reminisce, to look back at how we thought and felt about IPv6 over the years, here are six RIPE Labs articles championing adoption, flagging blockers, quashing misconceptions, evaluat…
An Eventful Ten Years in RIPEstat
Since its inception, RIPEstat has been helping network operators and end users monitor the state of the Internet. Ten years on, we look back at some of the ways RIPEstat enabled us to get a clearer picture of how the Internet fared in the event of outages, blackouts, natural disasters, and Nyan Cat.
A Brand New Look at the Best of RIPE Labs
RIPE Labs has just gone through a big transformation into a better, brighter, more beautiful version of itself. To help get a feel for what's changed, we take a tour through some of your favourite articles from the past year or so so you can enjoy them all over again in their fresh new setting.
Outcome of the AFRINIC Audit
AFRINIC has completed a comprehensive audit of its WHOIS Database following the misappropriation of IPv4 resources that came to light in 2019. A full report on the outcomes of their audit is now available.
Join Us for a RIPE NCC Open House on 10 Years of RIPE Atlas
The RIPE Atlas Open House takes place tomorrow. Here's a look at what to expect!
Looking Inside Outages with RIPE Atlas
RIPE Atlas probes actively measure Internet connectivity through a variety of measurement types. In this article, we take a closer look at what probes can tell us about outages.
Our First Glance at the Belarus Outages
On 9 August, Belarus experienced country-wide Internet outages. Here's a first glance at what our tools and datasets have to tell us about the scale of these outages and their impact.
Interested readers might want to take a look at the follow-up discussion currently taking place on the RIPE NCC Services Group Mailing List: https://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/ncc-services-wg/2021-May/thread.html
“When I and my journalistic colleague, Jan Vermeulen of MyBroaddband.co.za began our investigations into this colossal and truly epic malfeasance and theft of valuable IPv4 resources in mid 2019, the notion of either of us becoming famous or of receiving any credit for unraveling and publicly documenting this gigantic scandal was not what motivated us, nor has it been, since the beginning. Rather, we merely wished to right some wrongs and return to the people of Africa some IP resources critically needed for the ongoing development of the Internet in Africa. Nonetheless, it would have been, I think, at least minimally respectful if either AFRINIC or (now) RIPE had taken a moment to at least mention our names and our very evident, abundant, and key contributions towards exposing this whole huge mess. Neither organization, it seems, has thus far elected to do so publicly. Such is the reward, or lack thereof, of a job well done.”
Sorry for the oversight. I've updated the article with some additional information and a link so readers can find out more about how the news emerged.
“The link to the full AFRINIC whois audit report is not working.”
Thanks Wessel! Should be working for everyone now.
“small (almost rhetorical but not really) question. do you assume these outages were created manually on request of state regulator?”
As we say, our purpose here is really to see what our data has to tell us about the scale and impact of the outages. Nothing in the data we've been looking at determines what caused the outages.
“Any info about traffic packet loss from probes?”
Good question. Arriving at a proper answer to this would require looking at all measurements from all probes for the past four days to find out if any observed packet losses is related to the outage or to other issues in the path to the destination. From a first peek at one probe that disconnected for two days and came back, it seems that (some/all?) IPv4 pings did make it through all the time. IPv6 on the other hand had 100% packet loss. See: https://atlas.ripe.net/probes/25114/#tab-builtins
“A small correction - population is 9,5 mil. people”
Fixed. Thank you!
“Hi, I have been waiting for 8 months for a spare drive (maybe v4) for probe # 34441 that has stopped working. Will I get a spare unit by the end of the year?”
Hi Michele - according to our records, you applied for a new probe last April. The latest batch of version 4 probes is being shipped as we speak. We can confirm that your new probe is on its way to you.
“Is anybody here? Сan we use docker or lxc instead of VM?”
Apologies for the late response. The answer to your question is no. Using docker or LXC is not possible at present.
“Any updates?”
Hi Sascha - for the latest on RIPE Atlas probes, please check this article: https://labs.ripe.net/Members/alun_davies/new-ripe-atlas-version-4-probes
“Any news on the probe VM solution?”
Hi Joshua - we are currently gathering feedback on RIPE Atlas software probes and we are seeking volunteers willing to partner with us and help package the software for various operating systems and platforms. If you're interested in sending feedback or volunteering, let us know by filling in this short survey: https://www.ripe.net/participate/forms/apply/atlas-probes/
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