AS689

AS689 is a dormant autonomous system number registered to Merit Network, Inc., the Michigan nonprofit research-and-education network, and it announces zero IPv4 or IPv6 prefixes today despite carrying an Active status in ARIN's registry. The RIR record is valid and current, but the allocation itself is presently unrouted, with no visible peers or upstreams.

ARIN RDAP records the autnum's top-level registration event as 1990-06-28, with a last-changed date of 2023-07-14. This is the first-party allocation date for AS689 itself, distinct from four later entity-level contact/organization-record dates (spanning 1999–2009) tied to Merit's abuse, administrative, technical, and registrant points of contact — those are decoy dates, not the ASN's allocation.

Merit Network is a long-established nonprofit founded in 1966 by the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. It operated the NSFNET backbone from 1987 to 1995 and founded NANOG in 1994, giving the organization significant historical standing in U.S. Internet infrastructure. No fetched source, however, confirms that AS689 specifically — as opposed to one of Merit's sibling ASNs — carried that historic NSFNET traffic.

Merit's actively peered, publicly visible infrastructure runs under a different autonomous system. AS689 has no PeeringDB net record (peeringdb.com/asn/689 returns 404, and as689.peeringdb.com redirects to that same 404), while Merit's PeeringDB-listed ASN is the distinct AS237. bgp.he.net and bgp.tools both independently confirm zero announced prefixes and zero observed BGP peers for AS689 as of 2026-07-18.

Operator

Merit Network, Inc. (nonprofit R&E network; ARIN registrant MICH-Z, Ann Arbor, MI) [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/689, merit.edu/about

Country / RIR

US, ARIN [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/689

Allocated

1990-06-28 (ARIN RDAP top-level autnum registration event, NOT an IEEE/MAC-style date); last changed 2023-07-14 [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum top-level events (entity-level 2002/1999/2007/2009 dates are contact/org decoys, not used)

Org status

active independent nonprofit corporation (Merit Network), founded 1966, governed by Michigan's public universities [Confirmed] — merit.edu/about

Contacts

abuse@merit.edu (Network Abuse); ipreg@merit.edu (Internet Number Administrator); operations@merit.edu (Merit Operations); HQ 880 Technology Dr., Suite B, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP autnum/689

Security/abuse context (NEUTRAL, DATED)

no notable public abuse signal found as of 2026-07-18 — not in NANOG/seclists archives or BGP-hijack retrospectives; Spamhaus ASN-DROP could not be fetched directly, so treat as best-effort, not confirmed-clean

Network & routing

Network type

research/education (R&E) network; currently unrouted/dormant despite Active RIR status [Confirmed] — ARIN RDAP; bgp.he.net; bgp.tools

Size

dormant — 0 IPv4 and 0 IPv6 announced prefixes; 0 observed BGP peers; customer cone/AS-rank not populated for an unrouted ASN [Confirmed] — bgp.he.net/AS689, bgp.tools/as/689 (2026-07-18)

Routing/peering

NOT in the global routing table; no upstreams, peers, or IX presence visible; no PeeringDB net record for AS689 itself (peeringdb.com/asn/689 = 404) — Merit's active, PeeringDB-listed ASN is the distinct AS237 [Confirmed]

RPKI

not assessable — no announced prefixes, so no ROAs exist to validate [Confirmed, by absence] — bgp.he.net/AS689

Notable usage

Merit operated the NSFNET backbone (1987–1995) and founded NANOG (1994); no source confirms AS689 specifically (vs. sibling Merit ASNs) carried that traffic [Unknown for AS689's specific role; Confirmed for Merit's general history] — merit.edu/research/projects/the-nsfnet-backbone-service/

Related ASNs

AS237 (Merit's active, PeeringDB-listed operational network) [Confirmed]

Analyst note

Dormant/legacy-style ASN with Active RIR status but zero live routing. WHOIS/RDAP resolves cleanly to Merit Network; the ASN's own registration date (1990-06-28) sits at the autnum top level, separate from four unrelated entity-level contact dates.