AS183

AS183 is registered under ARIN to Merit Network, Inc., a Michigan-based nonprofit research and education (R&E) network operator headquartered at 880 Technology Dr., Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI. The ASN carries the handle MERIT-AS-3, the third of several early ASNs allocated to Merit (alongside AS181 MERIT-AS-1 and AS182 MERIT-AS-2). The registry records an ARIN allocation event dated 1988-04-28 and a last-changed event dated 2012-04-02. Merit itself is a long-running institution: founded in 1966 as the Michigan Educational Research Information Triad, member-governed by Michigan's public universities, it managed the NSFNET backbone from 1987 to April 1995 (with IBM and MCI) and hosted/organized NANOG from 1994 until stewardship passed to NewNOG in 2011, giving it substantial standing in the North American operator community. The key triage point is that AS183 is currently dormant: two independent routing observatories (bgp.he.net and bgp.tools) show it absent from the global routing table with zero IPv4 and zero IPv6 prefixes originated and no observable peers or upstreams as of June 2026. Merit's operational network runs on AS237 (with AS2885 also active), so AS183 is best described as a legacy/reserve ASN held by a reputable operator rather than a live transit network. No notable public abuse signal was found as of 2026-06-18; it is absent from the Spamhaus ASN-DROP list and from the community ASN blocklists checked, consistent with a dormant ASN that announces no traffic and therefore presents no observable abuse surface.

Operator

Merit Network, Inc. (ARIN registrant handle MICH-Z; 880 Technology Dr., Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, United States) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Allocated

ARIN AS183 registration event 1988-04-28; last-changed event 2012-04-02 (registry events, not an IEEE/IANA date) [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/183

Org status

active operator (Merit Network, Inc.), independent member-governed nonprofit founded 1966; runs RADb (the Routing Assets Database) and the Michigan Cyber Range. AS183 specifically is dormant [Confirmed] — merit.edu/about/, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network

Contacts

technical operations@merit.edu / +1-734-527-5717 (MERIT-ARIN); administrative ipreg@merit.edu / +1-734-763-3448 (IN-ORG-ARIN); abuse abuse@merit.edu / +1-734-527-5740 (NETWO26-ARIN) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-18; absent from Spamhaus ASN-DROP (asndrop.txt 2026-05-29) and from reviewed community ASN blocklists; dormant ASN presents no observable abuse surface — bgp.tools, spamhaus.org

Network & routing

Network type

regional research and education (R&E) network operator; AS183 is a legacy/reserve ASN, dormant vs Merit's active backbone AS237 [Confirmed] — merit.edu, bgp.tools

Size

dormant — 0 IPv4 prefixes, 0 IPv6 prefixes originated; not in the global routing table — bgp.he.net / bgp.tools (2026-06)

Routing/peering

no upstreams, peers, or downstreams currently observable (zero announcements). PeeringDB IRR/IXP data (RADB::AS-MICHNET; Any2Chicago, DET-iX, Equinix Chicago, Grand Rapids IX) is listed under Merit's active ASN AS237, not AS183 [Confirmed for the zero-announcement state; IXP/IRR entries belong to AS237]

RPKI

no ROAs or RPKI-valid/invalid prefixes visible — there are no active announcements to validate against [Unknown / not assessable] — bgp.he.net

Notable usage

the third early Merit ASN (MERIT-AS-3). Merit managed the NSFNET backbone 1987–1995 and organized NANOG 1994–2011; AS183 itself is currently dormant and carries no live routing — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network, rdap.arin.net

Related ASNs

AS237 (Merit's primary active ASN), AS2885 (also active), AS181 (MERIT-AS-1), AS182 (MERIT-AS-2) [Confirmed for AS237/AS2885; AS181/AS182 inferred from the MERIT-AS-n naming]

Analyst note

Encountered as a legacy Merit ASN; WHOIS resolves to a reputable R&E nonprofit. Dormant — no live routing on AS183; Merit's operational traffic is on AS237. Clean, no abuse signal.