HOWTO: Manage and Share Contact Information

PeeringDB, as the name suggests, was set up to facilitate peering between networks and peering coordinators. In recent years, the vision of PeeringDB has developed to keep up with the speed and diverse manner in which the Internet is growing. The database is no longer just for peering and peering related information. It now includes all types of interconnection data for networks, clouds, services, and enterprise, as well as interconnection facilities that are developing at the edge of the Internet. We believe in, and rely on the community to grow and improve the PeeringDB database.

The volunteers who run the database are passionate about security, privacy, integrity, and validation of the data in the database. Even though PeeringDB is a freely available and public tool, users strictly adhere to the acceptable use policy, which prevents the database from being used for commercial purposes and discourages unsolicited communications. This is largely policed by the community and has been very effective since PeeringDB was launched.

Why share contacts?

Interconnection, especially peering, comes with responsibilities. Peer networks need to be able to coordinate with each other to resolve technical problems. They also need to receive abuse reports.

Potential customers will want to know where to send sales questions.

Journalists want to know where to send questions and requests for interviews.

Controlling access

You can share some contacts with anonymous PeeringDB users, while others are only shared with authenticated PeeringDB users.

This lets you limit the chance of the teams who run your network being contacted indiscriminately by spam messages.

Types of contacts

  • Abuse: The address to send abuse reports.
  • Maintenance: The address to send notice of maintenance events.
  • NOC: The address for the Network Operations Center.
  • Policy: The address to send peering requests.
  • Public Relations: The address to contact the Public Relations team.
  • Sales: The address to send sales questions.
  • Technical: The address to send other technical questions and requests.

Next steps

Review your organization's contacts and their permissions. Adjust the contacts based on your current needs.