IP Subnets in the Greater Spore Network

Hello, and welcome to the master list of IP subnet designations for the Greater Spore Network.

FAQ

What is the “Greater Spore Network”?

If you need to ask, you probably don't need to know. However, I'm still happy to tell you.

The Greater Spore Network consists of Spore's network and all networks which route to and from that network through the Spore VPN. The purpose of the Spore network is to supply nearly local access to remote networks without the need for all remotely networked computers to join the VPN directly. Instead, the default routers on connected subnets forward appropriate traffic through the VPN for the entire local subnet.

The network is a convenient tool for network and server administration from remote, but trusted, locations. After the VPN connection is established, IP level communications can take place as though the remote subnets have a single router between the two, even though in reality the Internet divides all remote subnets.

Parties interested in joining the network will need to talk to me.

Why is this necessary? After all, aren't RFC 1918 Subnets supposed to be insulated from one another?

Since the implementation of the Spore Virtual Private Network it has been clear that a shared IP addressing scheme would be a valuable administrative tool.

Generally, a VPN allows clients to connect to a server or subnet. However, the Spore VPN is slightly different in that my VPN also allows routing to remote subnets from local subnets or other VPN clients. In order to support this larger virtual private network, with VPN gateways at peering points, connected subnets under different administrative control must use IP address ranges that do not conflict. Otherwise, different physical LANs might use the same common subnets like 10.0.0.0/8 or 192.168.1.0/24. If that were to happen, those subnets would be unable to route to each other through the VPN and speak to local addresses at the same time.

The RFC 1918 document probably puts it best:

An enterprise that decides to use IP addresses out of the address space defined in this document can do so without any coordination with IANA or an Internet registry. The address space can thus be used by many enterprises. Addresses within this private address space wil only be unique within the enterprise, of the set of enterprises which choose to cooperate over this space so they may communicate with each other in their own private internet. From http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1918.html, retrieved 2008-12-18.

Why Should I care?

Unless you are a member of the set of enterprises which choose to cooperate, you shouldn't. However if you are one of these so-called enterprises, you should be able to see your assigned segment of the address space below.

I am one such organization, and need to express administrative need for increased address space or another concern!

Well then, you should be a member of the hardly-existant Spore Network Architects Group, consisting of the administrators of the cooperating enterprises. By joining the mailing list (which is really just a virtual alias, so no fancy web interface), you too can be informed of, and even participate in, administrative decisions.

Spore's IP Subnets