How to BGP from your basement and other tales

18 December 2024

As previously announced, we are now officially AS214094. Additionally, we have obtained the IPv6 PI subnet 2001:67c:e28::/48 and acquired the IPv4 subnet 64.190.76.0/24 through a transfer from ARIN. This means we not only control and receive any related abuse reports, but we also fully own and manage all our network resources at this time.

Taking it a step further, we secured a deal through a friendly provider to directly collect traffic at the Milan Internet Exchange Point (MIX) from our OpenFiber 10G/2.5G residential link. A few days ago, we installed our own router at MIX, which we own and manage, and began announcing our address space.

Here’s how it works: OpenFiber, a partially publicly owned infrastructure provider, offers different reselling options. Larger providers install their own OLT and network equipment at each local POP, while smaller providers can rely on OpenFiber’s own equipment for direct delivery to an Italian Internet Exchange Point. From there, we purchase our own uplink, which involves significantly higher costs but guarantees dedicated, high-bandwidth service.

This setup gives us the best of both worlds: we maintain independent physical space for server security while enjoying the same level of network control we would have if we were directly housed at MIX. This ensures network ownership goes as high as possible, while we retain the strongest physical isolation for our servers.

The current monthly cost for this setup—including the residential fiber rental, housing and power for our router at MIX, and a 1G/1G dedicated uplink—is approximately €300. This excludes the cost of network equipment at our headquarters and power usage. We are thrilled about this development, as it gives us control over a substantial part of our network infrastructure, reducing costs and eliminating potential issues when operating Tor nodes. Moreover, since OpenFiber allows traffic collection from all over Italy at MIX, we can easily distribute our IP space and network resources geographically.

We have ambitious plans for 2025, both in terms of technical research and infrastructure updates. Many of us will also attend 38C3. If you plan to be there and are curious about our project or want to chat, feel free to drop us an email.

We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed this year—whether financially, with their time, or by sharing resources and knowledge. As we continue to expand, our costs are increasing, so please consider donating any amount. Donations are tax-deductible in Italy.

Currently, only a a test node is running to perform bandwidth measurements and hardware benchmarks. Once the testing phase is complete, we will begin running and maintaining enough instances to utilize as many addresses as possible and fully saturate the link.