AS229

AS229 is a legacy autonomous system number registered under ARIN to Merit Network, Inc., the nonprofit research-and-education (R&E) network founded in 1966 and governed by Michigan's public universities. Like Merit's other low-numbered ASNs, it dates to the dawn of the routed Internet: the ARIN RDAP autnum top-level registration event is 1988-09-12 (last changed 2012-04-02), consistent with Merit's role operating the NSFNET backbone — the direct predecessor of today's commercial Internet — from 1987 to 1995, founding and administering NANOG from 1994 to roughly 2011, and creating and still running RADb, one of the largest public Internet Routing Registries. Unlike the dormant AS181, AS229 is lightly active: it originates two IPv4 /23 prefixes (192.41.230.0/23 and 192.41.236.0/23, about 1,024 addresses) and a single IPv6 /48 (2001:48a8:68f7::/48), all fully visible across the RIPE RIS peer set (327/327 v4, 324/324 v6). CAIDA AS Rank classifies it as a stub: rank 36,435, BGP degree 2 with both neighbours acting as providers (AS237, Merit's active operational network, and AS231, Michigan State University), zero peers and zero customers, and a singleton customer cone of 1,024 addresses. The IPv6 prefix carries a valid RPKI ROA; the IPv4 prefixes match unauthenticated IRR objects but are not RPKI-covered. No notable public abuse signal was found as of June 2026 — AS229 is absent from Spamhaus ASN-DROP and the UCEPROTECT top-offender rankings, with only a single CleanTalk-flagged IP, a minimal signal consistent with incidental compromise rather than a pattern of abuse — fitting a small, clean ASN held by a respected R&E operator.

Operator

Merit Network, Inc. (nonprofit R&E network; ARIN handle MERIT-AS-6, registrant org MICH-Z "Merit Network Inc."; Ann Arbor, MI) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/229, merit.edu/about

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/229

Allocated

1988-09-12 (ARIN registry date from the autnum TOP-LEVEL registration event, NOT an IEEE date — IEEE publishes no ASN registration dates); last changed 2012-04-02 [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum top-level events

Org status

active independent nonprofit corporation (Merit Network), governed by Michigan's public universities; founded 1966; operated the NSFNET backbone under a National Science Foundation award; recent federal grant recognition (USDA, NTIA) underscores operational credibility [Confirmed] — merit.edu/about

Contacts

abuse@merit.edu / +1-734-527-5740 (NETWO26-ARIN); ipreg@merit.edu / +1-734-763-3448 (IN-ORG-ARIN, admin); operations@merit.edu (MERIT-ARIN, technical); HQ 880 Technology Drive, Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/229

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-19 — not in Spamhaus ASN-DROP or UCEPROTECT top-offender rankings; CleanTalk records a single spam-active IP (minimal, incidental); no NANOG incidents or threat-feed associations found; small clean footprint under a respected R&E operator — spamhaus.org/drop/asndrop.txt, cleantalk.org/blacklists/as229 [absence-of-listing tagged Likely where the primary query interface was blocked]

Network & routing

Network type

regional research and education (R&E) network; AS229 is a legacy Merit ASN that is lightly active (Merit's primary operational network runs under AS237) [Confirmed] — merit.edu/about, peeringdb.com/asn/237

Size

small/active — 2 IPv4 prefixes (192.41.230.0/23, 192.41.236.0/23) ≈ 1,024 addresses and 1 IPv6 prefix (2001:48a8:68f7::/48); customer cone = 1 ASN (itself), 2 prefixes, 1,024 addresses [Confirmed] — RIPEstat routing-status / announced-prefixes / CAIDA AS Rank (2026-06)

Routing/peering

announced and fully visible — RIS visibility 327/327 v4, 324/324 v6; CAIDA degree total 2, all providers (customers 0, peers 0); upstreams AS237 (Merit Network Inc.) and AS231 (Michigan State University) [Confirmed via bgp.tools; A3 CAIDA confirms count 2 but did not name them]. Merit's active AS237 runs a Selective peering policy (peering@merit.edu) [Likely for AS237 policy]

RPKI

IPv6 prefix 2001:48a8:68f7::/48 has a valid RPKI ROA; IPv4 /23 prefixes match unauthenticated IRR objects and are not RPKI-covered [Confirmed] — bgp.tools/as/229, whois.ipip.net/AS229

Notable usage

Merit operated the NSFNET backbone (1987–1995), founded and administered NANOG (1994–~2011), and created/operates RADb (IRR); operates ~4,000 miles of fiber across Michigan. AS229 (MERIT-AS-6) is an early/legacy Merit ASN; primary operational infrastructure runs under AS237 (~300–500 Gbps) — merit.edu/about, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_Network, peeringdb.com/asn/237

Related ASNs

AS237 (Merit's primary operational network) and AS231 (Michigan State University, an upstream); Merit holds additional low-numbered ASNs (e.g. AS181–185, AS229–230, AS232–233) [Confirmed for AS237/AS231; Likely for the broader block list per third-party DB]

Analyst note

Encountered as a lightly active legacy ASN registered to a historically significant R&E operator. The autnum top-level registration date (1988-09-12) is the allocation fact; entity/org-level RDAP registration dates (NETWO26-ARIN 2002, IN-ORG-ARIN 1999, MERIT-ARIN 2007, MICH-Z 2009) are POC/org records and were correctly ignored as decoys. Clean, low-volume ASN; primary routing runs under AS237.