AS168

AS168 is a low-numbered legacy Autonomous System Number registered under ARIN to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the flagship public research campus of the UMass system. The ARIN registrant name is "University of Massachusetts - AMHERST" and the ASN name is UMASS-AMHERST; the network is operated by the campus's Office of Information Technologies (OIT Network Services). The ARIN record shows an ASN registration date of 1988-04-05 with a last-changed date of 2007-03-23 — this is the registry database value, not an IEEE date and not an independently verifiable BGP activation date. Despite holding an early two-digit ASN, AS168 today carries a minimal footprint: in current routing tables it is effectively an IPv6-only stub AS, originating a single IPv6 prefix (2001:48e8:1000::/40) and zero IPv4 prefixes. It is single-homed to AS1249 (also University of Massachusetts - AMHERST, the system-level backbone), which serves as both its sole upstream and its only observed peer, so AS168 functions as a satellite of the larger UMass network rather than an independent transit provider. There is no PeeringDB entry (a lookup returns HTTP 404) and no published peering policy. RPKI coverage is absent — bgp.he.net reports zero ROAs and surfaces an "announces bogons" flag, which is consistent with a small legacy academic ASN and is not corroborated by any abuse report. No notable public abuse signal was found as of June 2026: AS168 is not on the Spamhaus ASN-DROP list, CleanTalk shows a 0% spam rate, and no NANOG or threat-feed discussion references it. Several UMass Amherst data-breach incidents (2024–2026) exist but are internal university events unrelated to this AS's routing posture.

Operator

University of Massachusetts Amherst (ARIN registrant "University of Massachusetts - AMHERST"; operating unit Office of Information Technologies / OIT Network Services) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP (https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/168)

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Allocated

ARIN ASN registration date 1988-04-05 (registry database value, NOT an IEEE date and not a verifiable BGP activation date); ASN record last changed 2007-03-23; org handle UNIVER-6 registered 1986-04-03 [Confirmed for the shown registry dates] — ARIN RDAP

Org status

active — public land-grant R1 research university, part of the University of Massachusetts system (Commonwealth of Massachusetts) [Confirmed] — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Massachusetts_Amherst

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-18 — not on Spamhaus ASN-DROP, CleanTalk 0% spam rate, no NANOG/threat-feed mentions; only flag is bgp.he.net "announces bogons" (uncorroborated) [Confirmed for absence-of-signal; bogon flag Likely benign] — spamhaus.org/drop/asndrop.txt, cleantalk.org/blacklists/asn168, bgp.he.net

Network & routing

Network type

education/research university network; IPv6-only stub AS (single-homed, no transit provided) [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net / bgp.tools / ipinfo.io

Size

IPv4 none currently announced; IPv6 one prefix 2001:48e8:1000::/40 (a /40 ≈ 256 /48-sized blocks) [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net (https://bgp.he.net/AS168), bgp.tools (https://bgp.tools/as/168)

Routing/peering

single upstream and only observed peer is AS1249 (University of Massachusetts - AMHERST system backbone), IPv6 only; avg AS path length ~5.965 hops (IPv6, 687 paths) [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net, bgp.tools

RPKI

no ROAs created (0 RPKI-valid, 0 RPKI-invalid); the single /40 is unprotected; bgp.he.net flags "announces bogons" [Confirmed for RPKI metrics; bogon cause Likely stale-collector/legacy artifact] — bgp.he.net

PeeringDB

no entry — peeringdb.com/asn/168 returns HTTP 404 [Confirmed] — peeringdb.com

Peering policy

Unknown — no PeeringDB record and no published operator peering policy found [Unknown] — bgp.tools / umass.edu/it/network

IX presence

Unknown — no internet-exchange records found for AS168 (parent AS1249 may hold any IX memberships) [Unknown]

AS rank / customer cone

Unknown — no published numeric global rank; no downstream/customer ASNs identified (stub AS) [Unknown] — bgp.he.net

Notable usage

campus network for UMass Amherst, the flagship public R1 land-grant research university (founded 1863; designated UMass system flagship in 2003); supports academic, research, and administrative operations [Confirmed] — umass.edu/it/about, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Massachusetts_Amherst

Related ASNs

AS1249 (University of Massachusetts - AMHERST; system backbone, sole upstream/peer of AS168) [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net

NOC/abuse contacts

NOC/Technical hostmaster@umass.edu (+1-413-545-0595); Admin John Fritz Doyle (individual mailbox and direct line in the ARIN RDAP record); Abuse OIT Network Services abuse@umass.edu (+1-413-545-9400) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Analyst note

low-numbered legacy ASN now used as a small IPv6-only satellite of the UMass Amherst network; sole connectivity is to AS1249. UMass Amherst data-breach incidents (2024–2026) are internal university events, not outbound abuse from this AS. Clean academic ASN.