If you need an IPv4 address, which is an increasingly rare commodity, there are some people in Romania who may be able to help you.

The onetime Communist country has become the place to go in Europe, Russia and the Middle East for IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) addresses, which were free and easy to get until the Internet grew as big as it has. New rules expected later this year may see address-hungry users in Asia and North America turning to the Romanians, too.

The roots of the Romanian IP address trade lie in the country’s peculiar Internet history. When commercial Internet service began in Romania around 2000, it was totally unplanned and unregulated. People started ISPs by pulling cables from one house to the next.

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