Hi, Wilson Mehringer, Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 03:09:03PM +0100 :

Hi Kristofer,

I thought that a customer can NOT get an AS# from Ripe without first becoming a LIR!! Vise versa, he/she can become a LIR without necessarily getting an AS#. Am I missing out on something??

Only LIRs can request an AS, but they can request one for someone else. The only requirements for a new AS is that a) they have some address space to announce and b) they can specify a minimum of two existing AS's that the new one will peer with. Here's a quote from "Autonomous System (AS) Number Assignment Policies and Procedures" (http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/asn-assignment.html): "The RIPE NCC assigns AS Numbers for Autonomous Systems located in the RIPE NCC service region and only accepts requests for AS Numbers from LIRs. LIRs may request AS Numbers on behalf of other organisations. ". You're right about the latter part, though. A LIR does not have to have an AS. It is quite common for LIRs to have their own AS, but by no means necessery. An AS is simply a technical requirement to be able to peer with other entities, in order to exchange dynamic routing tables. On the other hand, being a LIR is a far bigger thing, a Local Internet Registry. LIR's are typically providers who can request allocations from RIPE and then furthermore assign IP numbers to their customers, and well...be an Internet Registry. :-) -- Kristófer Sigurðsson Nethönnun ehf.