AS557

AS557 is an autonomous system number registered under ARIN to the University of Maine System (UMS), a public university system whose network is operated day-to-day by Networkmaine, a unit created in 2009 through a memorandum of understanding among UMS, the Maine Department of Education, the Maine State Library, and the state's Office of Information Technology. ARIN's RDAP record places the ASN's top-level registration event at 1989-12-13, corroborated independently by bgp.tools, which states the ASN was "Registered on 13 December 1989." The most recent RDAP change to the record dates to 2026-05-19. Networkmaine runs the MaineREN optical research-and-education network, connecting UMS campuses, K-12 schools and public libraries enrolled in the Maine School and Library Network (MSLN) program, and state government and research institutions; it is an Internet2 member and has received substantial recent federal broadband funding. Route-count sources disagree meaningfully on scale — bgp.he.net counts 38 IPv4 / 5 IPv6 announced prefixes, bgp.tools counts 17 IPv4 / 1 IPv6, PeeringDB's operator-managed profile lists 45 IPv4 / 4 IPv6, and ARIN's registered resource total for the org is 19 IPv4 blocks (292,608 addresses) plus a single IPv6 /64 — a spread that is reported rather than reconciled. Upstream transit is provided by Hurricane Electric, Cogent, FirstLight Networks, and Internet2, with public peering at MASS-IX in Boston and NNENIX in Portland, Maine. RPKI coverage is largely valid (bgp.tools: 14 of 17 IPv4 prefixes signed). No notable public abuse signal was found as of 2026-07-11, though bgp.he.net separately flags the ASN as one that "announces bogons" — a routing-hygiene note that is reported here with hedging rather than treated as a confirmed abuse finding.

Operator

University of Maine System, operated day-to-day by Networkmaine (a UMS unit) [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557, https://networkmaine.net/about/

AS name (RIR handle)

UMAINE-SYS-AS [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557

Allocated

1989-12-13 — ARIN RDAP autnum TOP-LEVEL registration event, corroborated by bgp.tools ("Registered on 13 December 1989"); last changed 2026-05-19 [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557, https://bgp.tools/as/557

Org status

unit of a public university system; Networkmaine created 2009 by MOU among UMS, the Maine Dept. of Education, the Maine State Library, and the state Office of IT; governed by a coordinating council [Confirmed] — https://networkmaine.net/about/

Contacts

NOC@lists.maine.edu, support@maine.edu, abuse@maine.edu, +1-207-581-3587; ARIN POCs Ray Patrick Soucy and Jonathan Bean; two legacy POC entries (NAR5-ARIN, UNOC-ARIN) flagged unresponsive/unvalidated since Feb/Aug 2025 [Confirmed] — https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557

IANA reference

none located; left blank rather than invented [Unknown] — n/a

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal as of 2026-07-11 — not in Spamhaus ASN-DROP; no NANOG hijack/leak threads found; bgp.he.net separately flags "AS557 announces bogons" as an unconfirmed routing-hygiene note, not a confirmed abuse verdict

Network & routing

Network type

research/education (R&E); Networkmaine operates the MaineREN optical network [Confirmed] — https://networkmaine.net/about/, https://www.peeringdb.com/net/13578

Size / prefixes

discrepant across sources — PeeringDB (operator-managed) 45 IPv4 / 4 IPv6; bgp.he.net 38 IPv4 / 5 IPv6; bgp.tools 17 IPv4 / 1 IPv6; ARIN RDAP registered resource total 19 IPv4 blocks (292,608 addresses) + 1 IPv6 /64 [Likely — not reconciled] — https://www.peeringdb.com/net/13578, https://bgp.he.net/AS557, https://bgp.tools/as/557, https://rdap.arin.net/registry/autnum/557

Upstreams/transit

Hurricane Electric (AS6939), Cogent Communications (AS174), FirstLight Networks (AS13536), Internet2 (AS11164/AS11537) [Likely — independent measurement, not operator-published] — https://bgp.he.net/AS557

Peering/IX

MASS-IX (Boston) and NNENIX (Portland); Selective peering policy, no contract required, IRR AS-SET AS-NETWORKMAINE, per the operator's own PeeringDB profile (no standalone written peering-policy page located on networkmaine.net) [Likely] — https://www.peeringdb.com/net/13578

RPKI

majority valid — bgp.he.net: "most announced prefixes carry valid RPKI signatures"; bgp.tools: 14 of 17 IPv4 prefixes RPKI-valid [Likely] — https://bgp.he.net/AS557, https://bgp.tools/as/557

Notable usage

serves UMS campuses, K-12 schools/public libraries via MSLN, and Maine state government/research institutions across MaineREN; Internet2 member [Confirmed] — https://networkmaine.net/about/, https://internet2.edu/networkmaine-cultivating-community-collaboration-to-expand-regional-research-capabilities/

Community reputation

positive signals only — established R&E operator, Internet2 member, recent $30–53M federal broadband funding; no negative community/incident reports found in NANOG or Reddit archives [Confirmed] — https://networkmaine.net/, https://archive.nanog.org/list/archives.html

Analyst note

core identity, allocation date, and operator are well corroborated across ARIN RDAP and an independent measurement source (bgp.tools). The main open item is a genuine, unreconciled discrepancy in announced-prefix counts across four sources (PeeringDB, bgp.he.net, bgp.tools, ARIN registered totals) — reported as a range rather than resolved to a single figure — plus unknown customer-cone size and address estimate, which no source in this pass surfaced.