IP changing, block of 6 lost

I escaped the last round where Zen moved IP addresses so they could flog off blocks of IPv4. Today they say I'm getting a new IP in August and I'm losing my block (cos I don't pay).

To be fair I've never used the block so I won't miss it. The IP address moves from 82.68.x.x to 82.71.x.x. My only regret is I've used my current IP for a mailserver without trouble for years, hopefully the new address won't be on any blocklists.

I guess if I really need other addresses I could get my head around IPv6.

Anyway, hours of endless fun ahead as I reconfigure all my DNS forwards, VPNs and all the other stuff I can't remember untill it all goes down...

I've been with Zen since 2003, and one of the reasons I've stuck with them is that they've always catered well to more technical customers.

For over 20 years I've had a static /29 IPv4 allocation. It's become part of my infrastructure. Firewalls, VPNs, DNS, monitoring, remote access, allow lists, all built around those addresses. They're not just IPs, they're embedded in years of configuration.

I've now also been told that in August my /29 will be withdrawn and replaced with a single /32 address, and it's not even one of my existing IPs.

For many customers this probably won't matter. But for those of us who actually use the allocation, it's a surprisingly disruptive change. It's not just reconfiguring my own equipment, there are third-party systems, whitelists, services and remote sites that all need updating. There's also the possibility I'll need to pay extra elsewhere to replace functionality I've had included for decades.

Do Zen have commercial pressures? Or is this money grubbing. Removing long-standing allocations feels like quite a shift in direction.

Same for me, Over 20 years a customer and they just cut you off with no options, I have kept wit them as they have always been more open and technical, seems that’s the way they started but are not interested in it staying that way. They said to mail them with any questions, I did and no response, tried to call over 30 minutes and still waiting with that same twaddle message as every other call centre does "we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes"... very disappointing.

Did they offer you the callback service (press 1 during hold)? It seemed to work alright for me, but they did need about 90 minutes to call me back(!).

In reply to a post by clmfsh:

... I've now also been told that in August my /29 will be withdrawn and replaced with a single /32 address, and it's not even one of my existing IPs.

Time to move to IPv6. Cutting you off in August is not right. I think for something like that, they should give you 6 months' or a year's notice, give you a static IPv6 prefix and tell you that for static IP it is IPv6 going forward.

In reply to a post by RichTea23:

that same twaddle message as every other call centre does "we are experiencing higher than normal call volumes"

For all of these, I would like to know at exactly what time I can call when call volumes are normal.