Lease IPv4 Subnets from /27 to /22
Choose a subnet for an HSTQ server or an external facility.
- /27–/25 for HSTQ servers
- /24–/22 with LoA, WHOIS/PTR and announcement
- Provisioning confirmed before payment
IPv4 essentials before you lease a subnet
Address allocation, market context and operational procedures in one place.
How Internet addresses are allocated and administered
The Internet number-resource system is divided among five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs); RIPE NCC serves Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. RIRs allocate and maintain IPv4 and IPv6 resources, registry databases and transfer procedures. Address blocks are administered through LIR members, making assignments traceable and procedurally valid. IPv4 pool exhaustion led to established secondary-transfer and leasing practices with documented history. Registries do not set market prices, but they record the resource holder and responsible contacts. Accurate records and policy compliance affect how a subnet can be used. Provisioning is confirmed after the use case and availability are reviewed. HSTQ handles only the registry operations explicitly included with the selected plan.
Network sizes and the meaning of /24, /23 and /22
A /24 prefix uses 24 bits for the network and eight for hosts, providing 256 addresses. A /23 contains 512 addresses, a /22 contains 1,024 and a /27 contains 32, which can suit small hosting or VPN deployments. An IPv4 address consists of four eight-bit octets, for example 203.0.113.0/24. For public Internet announcement, providers generally accept prefixes no more specific than /24. Smaller networks from /25 to /32 are usually filtered from the global routing table. We therefore offer /24 and larger blocks for announcements between data centres, while smaller blocks are used on HSTQ infrastructure. If VLSM or internal subdivision is required, we can help plan non-overlapping subnets.
Scarcity, supply and the factors that affect price
RIR free pools of IPv4 addresses are exhausted, so current supply comes from previously allocated blocks. Price is affected by subnet size, usage history, abuse-list status and the holder’s geography. Prefix reputation is reviewed during provisioning, but external databases update independently and future reputation depends on how the addresses are used. Leasing allows an address estate to scale without a lengthy rights-transfer transaction. We maintain reserve inventory and distributed facilities to reduce provisioning delays. For long-term independence, we can help plan a transition to your own address resources. TCO should include the address price, reputation-remediation costs and operational risk.
How block ownership and announcement authority are verified
WHOIS records identify the resource-holding organisation and relevant contacts. Announcement from a third-party data centre requires an LoA, a letter of authorisation from the block owner or administrator. We can issue LoAs for /24 and larger networks, specifying the ASN, facilities and applicable period. Route or route6 objects and IRR policy must also be aligned so upstreams can build correct filters. Where needed, a ROA is published or updated in RPKI to reduce the risk of rejected announcements. Consistent WHOIS, IRR and LoA records speed up activation and reduce security queries. All changes are documented and can be verified by counterparties.
Reverse DNS and its effect on mail delivery and reputation
PTR records map an IP address to a hostname, and many services treat valid rDNS as a basic requirement. PTR is important for mail infrastructure, but it does not guarantee delivery by itself; SPF, DKIM, DMARC, address history and sending policy also matter. We configure delegation, agree the naming format and enable DNSSEC where applicable. Geographically distributed name servers keep rDNS available during a local outage. Zones are moved carefully before a facility change to avoid stale records. PTR templates and validation checklists are available for larger deployments on request. This discipline reduces blocking risk and makes incident investigation easier.
How to announce a subnet through upstream filters
For the global Internet, we recommend announcing /24 or larger because more-specific prefixes are commonly filtered. We help prepare IRR objects, ROAs and BGP communities for the requirements of the selected upstreams. Max-prefix, MED and local policy are reviewed so traffic follows the expected paths. Where required, GRE tunnels can connect the customer facility and the prefix can be announced through our ASN. Aggregation should be maintained and unnecessary splits avoided to improve route propagation. All changes are documented, with rollback procedures for incidents. This approach defines routing and operational responsibility before activation.
