Latest News

It’s more great news for NZIX members!

Our engineers have made some adjustments to the Route Servers across the network and are now permitting third party content caches supplied by other members via BGP communities.

If your network wants to offer content caches on the IX get in touch with us at peering@ix.nz!

To start things off we welcome the following third-party content cache but we need your help to grow this list!:

• CHC-IX: Netflix via VocusGroup New Zealand (AS9790) – use the community 63830:40027

As a Christmas present our member Trustpower started announcing their Auckland Steam cache for all Members on AKL-IX to enjoy instead of opt-in communities!  Big thanks to Trustpower for letting all peers of AKL-IX to enjoy speedy Steam downloads!

To ensure you are getting the most out of the IX, please see the peering technical page for the list of community strings supported by NZIX.

During the month of August, as lockdown commenced, the traffic through the exchanges started soaring. Incredibly, both AKL-IX and CHC-IX hit new records, with AKL-IX peaking at 341Gbps with plenty of room to spare.

The peaks have continued throughout lockdown, with weekday highs ranging between low to mid 300Gbps. We could not be more proud of our network as it continues to carry that amount of traffic without breaking a sweat!

Earlier this month, as a thank you to all our fantastic members, we sent out our custom NZIX masks. With the recent mask mandates here in New Zealand, your mask will definitely be put to good use. Made from milk fibre and cotton material with PM2.5 filters, they are comfortable, breathable, and definitely one of the better-looking masks out there!

If any of our members would like additional masks, please email us and we’ll see what we can do.

We hope you enjoy your mask (but not for too long!), and if you feel like sharing, take a mask mugshot and send it in to us at admin@ix.nz

The plan to launch the much-anticipated WLG-IX was unfortunately pushed back due to lockdown restrictions affecting important work needed to get the new IX up and running. We would thank all the members who have pre-ordered their services and are now waiting patiently for the impending launch.

We are pleased to announce the soft launch of WLG-IX on Friday, October 1, 2021, and advise that we will be accepting cross connect orders from this date. The twelve-month free period will commence shortly after on Monday, November 1, 2021.

We would like to remind all members that you can pre-order your services through the members portal, or if you would like to speak with one of our team to find out more, please get in touch with us at peering@ix.nz

After the last NZIX AGM, our membership discussed a decline of incoming talent and an aging incumbent population. It was noted that the membership believed tertiary education institutions were not currently teaching the skills needed for the field, and historically, people learned by making mistakes on residential ISP’s. Unfortunately, the tolerance around faults has reduced in recent years, and all ISP’s, residential and business alike, strive for the best uptimes.

NZIX finds itself in an interesting position as a well-connected organisation within New Zealand with relationships with some LFC’s, many RSP’s as well as some CDN’s/Clouds, as well as being a neutral not-for-profit with capital to invest in initiatives that will better New Zealand’s Internet.

We are proposing to build an educational environment connected to actual, full table transit, real Internet Exchanges, and participating LFC’s. Users of the environment will be able to deploy switches, routers, and Linux containers to construct a working ISP. Further, users will be able to connect to VISP at their homes/offices using standard UFB connections as ‘customers’ of the ISP they build or adapt.

The initial target of the educational environment is the NZIX membership, with longer-term potential relationships being developed with tertiary education providers. If all goes well, we could also extend the learning to high school students online or within schools via the NZCA unit standard.

We are very excited about this prospective project and what this would mean for the future of our Internet; however, please keep in mind that we are in the beginning stages of speaking with vendors and testing the general viability of the project. Rest assured, we will keep you up-to-date with the project as developments happen.

Earlier this year, the NZIX committee reviewed the current Society rules and after seeking advice from their legal team, have proposed a number of special resolutions to rectify timing issues regarding the draft audited financials being produced in time for the Annual General Meeting.

In May 2021 the NZIX Committee passed a motion to support a set of Society rule changes that not only addressed these issues, but also looked to reduce the Internet Association of Australia’s current oversight and reflect their name change from WAIA to IAA.

The proposed rule changes were circulated to members on 19 May 2021 as part of the 2021 AGM official notice in addition to a Member letter from Chair, Chris Browning, letter explaining the rationale behind these changes. As per the current rules, these changes were presented at the 2021 AGM and voted on at both the in-person event and virtually via Zoom. The motion to accept these changes was put forward by Chris Browning and passed with 11 yes votes in the room and 4 yes votes via Zoom. There were no objections recorded and a required 10 yes votes needed, the motion passed. 

The updated NZIX Society rules are now available to view or download from the website.

NZIX would like to thank all Members who helped get the rule changes executed.

If you require any of the rule change documentation or have any questions pertaining to them, please email admin@ix.nz.

Thank you to all who attended the Annual General Meeting either in person or online, it was a great evening.

Welcome and Chair’s Report

The AGM kicked off with Chris Browning delivering a welcome followed by the Chair’s report. The report provided an overview of the Society in 2021, a brief mention of what’s to come in 2022, a timely reminder of why the Society exists, and finished off with a brief overview of the internet exchanges.

Treasurer’s Report

Dave Mill provided an overview of the Society’s financial position, change of auditor and an expense breakdown. To obtain a copy of the draft financial statement or audit report please email your request to  admin@ix.nz. 

Secretary’s Report

Tom Paseka provided an overview of our growth in 2021, reporting a 2.12% increase in membership numbers with a total of 96 members. There is also an updated Privacy Policy, Travel Policy and Master Service Agreement (MSA) that allows the Society to work more freely with international companies.

Technical Report

Chris Browning provided an overview of the IX’s across the country. Although the much anticipated WLG-IX is yet to go live, there is much excitement over the expansion of the Society’s peering footprint.

NZIX welcomes the Internet Systems Consortium F-Root DNS server to AKL-IX! Interconnection and compute graciously provided by InternetNZ for all AKL-IX members to enjoy lower latency DNS resolution!

This one is a freebie for ISC and a welcome one to strengthen the redundancy of a critical component to the internet!

In collaboration with Chorus, NZIX continues to offer peering from any handover port on Chorus’ ultra-fast broadband network and is now available in the Auckland Internet Exchange (AKL-IX) and Christchurch Internet Exchange (CHC-IX) is coming soon.

Chorus EdgeConnect enables Chorus customers to communicate with other NZIX members on the same exchange. This will enable connections between Chorus customers to other NZIX members physically connected to NZIX switches, or even to those NZIX members similarly connected via Chorus EdgeConnect. 

To take advantage of peering via EdgeConnect, you will need to have a current NZIX service, be a Chorus customer and have a Chorus NGA handover.

Interested in EdgeConnect? Place your order in the Member Portal or for more information, visit the EdgeConnect page or email support@ix.nz.

After much planning and negotiations, the launch of  WLG-IX in 2021 is becoming a reality. WLG-IX is estimated to go live around September 2021 with switches set to arrive soon and fibre orders almost complete. The new PoP’s will be located at Xtreme DC and Spark Featherston St – see you there!