AS184

AS184 is a legacy Autonomous System Number registered under ARIN to Merit Network, Inc., an independent, member-governed nonprofit headquartered at 880 Technology Dr., Suite B, Ann Arbor, Michigan. The ARIN handle name MERIT-AS-4 indicates this was one of several early ASN blocks Merit registered. Merit is America's longest-running regional research and education network (REN); it was founded in 1966 by Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University, and today operates roughly 4,000 miles of fiber serving educational, government, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations. Merit's historical weight is substantial: it managed the NSFNET backbone from 1988 to April 1995 — the network widely regarded as the direct precursor to the commercial Internet — in partnership with NSF, IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan, and it created NANOG (the North American Network Operators' Group) in 1994. The triage point for AS184 itself is that it is currently inactive: two independent live trackers (bgp.he.net and bgp.tools) agree it originates zero IPv4 and zero IPv6 prefixes, has no observed peers or upstreams, and carries no RPKI data as of 2026-06-18. Merit's active routing today runs under other ASNs (for example AS237, AS229, AS2885); AS184 appears to be retained for administrative continuity. The ARIN registry records a registration date of 1988-04-28 and a last-changed date of 2012-04-02 — those are registry database events, not IEEE-published dates. No notable public abuse signal was found: AS184 is not on the Spamhaus ASN-DROP list (430-entry feed dated 2026-05-29) and no NANOG threads or threat-feed entries implicate it. It is, effectively, a clean dormant legacy ASN held by a well-established nonprofit network operator.

Operator

Merit Network, Inc. (independent nonprofit, member-governed; 880 Technology Dr., Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, United States) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP, merit.edu/about

Country / RIR

US, ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) [Confirmed] — rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/184

Allocated

ARIN ASN registration date 1988-04-28 (the autnum-level RegDate in ARIN RDAP — a registry database event, NOT an IEEE-published date); ASN last changed 2012-04-02 [Confirmed for the shown registry dates] — ARIN RDAP

Org status

active holder (Merit Network, Inc.); founded 1966 by MSU, U-M, and Wayne State; member-governed by Michigan's public universities [Confirmed] — merit.edu/about, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-18; not on Spamhaus ASN-DROP (feed dated 2026-05-29, 430 entries); no NANOG/threat-feed entries; Merit also operates RADb and the Michigan Cyber Range (defensive posture) — spamhaus.org/drop/asndrop.json, bgplookingglass.com

Abuse / NOC contacts

abuse@merit.edu / +1-734-527-5740; operations@merit.edu / +1-734-527-5717

Network & routing

Network type

regional research and education network (REN); ~4,000 miles of fiber serving education, government, healthcare, nonprofit; AS184 itself is a legacy/retired ASN [Confirmed for operator type; AS184 inactivity Confirmed] — merit.edu, bgp.he.net/AS184

Size

none currently announced — 0 IPv4 prefixes, 0 IPv6 prefixes; no address-space estimate derivable from live routing [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net/AS184, bgp.tools/as/184

Routing/peering

inactive — absent from the global BGP table; 0 peers, 0 upstreams observed; no RPKI ROAs recorded [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net/AS184, bgp.tools/as/184

Notable usage

Merit managed the NSFNET backbone (1988–1995, the Internet's precursor) and created NANOG in 1994; MERIT-AS-4 was an early ASN block, now inactive — merit.edu/research/projects/the-nsfnet-backbone-service, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network

Related ASNs

Merit operates other active ASNs including AS237, AS229, AS2885 [Likely — single-source via bgp.he.net operator listing]

Analyst note

Encountered as a historic curiosity and an administratively-retained legacy ASN. WHOIS resolves to Merit Network; AS184 originates nothing today. Clean dormant ASN.