AS42

AS42 is a legacy number registered under ARIN to WoodyNet, Inc., the operating entity for Packet Clearing House (PCH), and unlike most of its low-number neighbors it is operationally significant rather than a stub. RFC 1020 (1987) originally labeled AS42 "THINK-AS" — Thinking Machines Corporation, the Cambridge maker of the Connection Machine supercomputer — so the reassignment to WoodyNet/PCH is a notable historical→current divergence. PCH operates one of the world's largest anycast DNS platforms, including two root nameservers, more than 400 top-level domains (including the country-code domains of over 130 countries), and the Quad9 recursive resolver, and provides operational support and security to Internet exchange points and the core of the DNS. As of June 2026 it is present at 339 Internet exchanges, originates 420 prefixes (214 IPv4 / 206 IPv6, ~60,672 IPv4 addresses), is observed with 782 BGP peers, and is essentially fully RPKI-signed (417 valid, 0 invalid). The ARIN RegDate of 2001-05-16 is the WoodyNet registry refresh, not the original 1980s assignment. For triage this is a globally distributed DNS/IXP anycast operator — one of the most widely IXP-connected networks in existence; treat it as a full infrastructure profile, and note that any "announces bogons" flag reflects deliberate anycast/special-purpose prefixes, not abuse. No notable public abuse signal was found as of June 2026.

Operator

WoodyNet, Inc. (operating entity for Packet Clearing House / PCH; ARIN OrgName WoodyNet, Inc.; Berkeley, CA) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP

Country / RIR

US, ARIN (global anycast footprint) [Confirmed]

Allocated

ARIN ASN RegDate 2001-05-16 (WoodyNet registry refresh, NOT original 1980s assignment; updated 2012-03-02) [Confirmed for shown date]

Org status

active, critical-infrastructure nonprofit

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

clean and reputable; no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-06-08. HE "announces bogons" flag reflects deliberate anycast/special-purpose prefixes, not malicious activity — bgp.he.net

Network & routing

Network type

nonprofit / critical Internet infrastructure [Confirmed]

Size

420 prefixes (214 IPv4 / 206 IPv6); ~60,672 IPv4 addrs — bgp.he.net (2026-06)

Routing/peering

present at 339 IXes; 782 BGP peers observed (714 v4 / 533 v6); upstreams incl. NTT AS2914, Level 3 AS3356, Arelion AS1299, Zayo AS6461, HE AS6939, GTT AS3257, RETN AS9002; PeeringDB IRR-set RADB::AS-PCH; RPKI 417 valid / 0 invalid — bgp.he.net, peeringdb.com

Notable usage

[historical, RFC 1020] AS42 "THINK-AS" = Thinking Machines Corp. (Connection Machine supercomputer). [current] WoodyNet/PCH — world's largest anycast DNS platform incl. 2 root nameservers, 400+ TLDs (130+ ccTLDs), and Quad9; operational support/security for IXPs and the DNS core — pch.net

Related ASNs

AS715 (WoodyNet, Inc.), AS3856 (PCH-AS — Packet Clearing House); AFRINIC org "Woodynet Ltd" (Mauritius) [Confirmed]

Analyst note

NOT a stub — a globally distributed DNS/IXP anycast operator (339 IXes, DNS roots/ccTLDs/Quad9). Treat AS42 as a full infrastructure profile; one of the most widely IXP-connected networks in existence. Primary contact Bill Woodcock (PCH).