Autonomous System (AS) information is now available from the RIPE whois server. The server will accept queries for AS<number>. Very basic information about most existing ASes from the NIC and other sources has been entered with a source attribute of INTERNIC and will only be found if the -a flag is passed to the whois server. This information is also available as file from ftp.ripe.net in file ripe/dbase/asn.db.Z. In order to get things going some instances of the new RIPE AS object have also been entered already. For example whois as786 will produce aut-num: AS786 descr: The JANET IP Service descr: UK as-in: AS60 50 AS60 as-in: AS766 100 AS766 as-in: AS1263 45 DEFAULT as-in: AS1275 100 AS1275 as-in: AS1290 50 AS1290 as-in: AS1755 102 RIPE-DB AND NOT (LOCAL AS786) as-in: AS1849 50 AS1849 as-in: AS1930 100 AS1930 as-in: AS2107 100 AS2107 as-in: AS2111 100 AS2111 as-out: AS60 AS786 AS766 as-out: AS766 AS786 AS1755 as-out: AS1263 AS786 AS766 AS1930 AS2107 AS2111 as-out: AS1275 AS786 AS1755 as-out: AS1290 AS786 as-out: AS1755 AS786 AS766 AS1275 AS1930 AS2107 AS2111 as-out: AS1849 AS786 AS1755 as-out: AS1930 AS786 AS1755 as-out: AS2107 AS786 AS1755 as-out: AS2111 AS786 AS1755 default: AS1263 1 guardian: jips-nosc@noc.ulcc.ac.uk admin-c: Duncan Rogerson admin-c: Kevin Hoadley tech-c: Duncan Rogerson tech-c: Kevin Hoadley remarks: AS2111 link is not yet active, coming soon. changed: D.Rogerson@nosc.ja.net 930226 source: RIPE A description of the AS object can be found in appendix A of document ripe-81. We also accept updates and additions of AS objects in the RIPE database at <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>. We urge everyone to send in AS objects a.s.a.p.. They do not necessarily need to include the routing policy information (as-in, as-out, default and guardian). If you want to jump in at the deep end you could read ripe-81 and generate the routing policy as well. We will be happy to help you with this. However don't put off sending in the basic information because of this. There is a real benefit in this being available too. Further plans: The NCC will generate AS objects for all ASes being used in the European Internet and not present in the database during the next week and send them to the suspected contact persons for validation. Shortly after these are installed, a new update procedure for the aut-sys tag of network objects will be anabled. This procedure is described in ripe-81. Basically it means that aut-sys tags will be generated from information supplied by the AS guardians. Initially the NCC will be guardian for all ASes which do not have a guardian yet and process change requests manually. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this. The NCC Staff PS: A new ripe document containing all database templates and update procedures is being prepared and will be released shortly.