Hello NANOG...
I have a client interested in picking up a new AS number but they really want it to be 3 or 4 digits in length.
Is there a process to request this from ARIN, or doss anyone know of unused ASns fitting this that anyone is looking to sell for some quick cash?
Thanks!
James
James,
As far as I know, you can't buy an existing ASN for any amount of money. You can buy the company that owns it, but that seems like boiling tea with a blowtorch.
I sincerely doubt there are unused low-number ASNs, but you could always ask ARIN.
I'm curious what your client's rationale is for wanting a low ASN. It can't be efficiency, since the numbers all take the same number of bits ultimately. If they just like small numbers, I'd advise them to forget it -- life is too short. If they have a real technical reason that nobody has foreseen (or at least I haven't foreseen), I'd love to hear it.
-mel beckman
as i understand it, you cant do bgp at all under 5
There are, for better or worse, ASN transfers under NRPM 8.3 in the ARIN region. (Personally, I find this silly, but the community came to consensus on the matter, so it is what it is).
As such, if you can find someone with a low number ASN who is willing to part with it for what you are willing to offer to acquire same, then you can transfer it.
Owen
> I'm curious what your client's rationale is for wanting a low ASN.
Dare I say it?
Nerds often get overly excited at things that are generally pretty
small...
AS251 comes to mind as one of few 3-digit ones that has existed, but doesent anymore (atleast not in DFZ).
But do you really want a used and abused old asn? The old logic with the lower ASN you have the bigger E-penis you got doesent really apply anymore since the biggest players on the Internet doesent have 3 or 4 digit ASNs anymore.
You can in RIPE region, but you must first find an "owner" ready to
tranfer it (for money or for free). ASN transfers do happen here, and
there are indications that they happen in ARIN region too (
https://www.ipv4auctions.com/customer/account/previous/ - search for
ASN).
I can part ways with unused AS35777 but it's in the RIPE region. 5 digits but kind of nice to look at, and still better than e.g. AS57329 (no offense to AS57329!) 
Regards
Markus
James,
As far as I know, you can't buy an existing ASN for any amount of money. You can buy the company that owns it, but that seems like boiling tea with a blowtorch.
I sincerely doubt there are unused low-number ASNs, but you could always ask ARIN.
I'm curious what your client's rationale is for wanting a low ASN.
It is called ASN-envy.
-Hank
AS378 
In article <20171012070551.GA52873@spider.typo.org> you write:
> I'm curious what your client's rationale is for wanting a low ASN.
Dare I say it?
Nerds often get overly excited at things that are generally pretty
small...
Too bad I can't sell my old NSI handle.
R's,
JL7
I've got a DDN TAC access card if they are interested in that as well. Might even be able to dig up a BBN PAD for them too.
Steven Naslund
Chicago IL
AS1312 does BGP quite nicely... Not sure what you meant there, unless the
text/plain lost the <font=sarcasm> tags...
And here smaller is better 
How would one go about cleaning up the provenance and either re-using or selling an ASN, supposing:
1) you are all the registered contacts for the ASN and your ARIN POC is still valid
2) the ASN was owned by (ok...it's ARIN[1], so "registered to") a defunct corporation (inactive >10 years) of which you were part-owner
3) the ARIN maintenance fees have been unpaid >10 years...yet the ASN still exists in whois
[1] It was actually assigned pre-ARIN, but to an org that eventually signed the RSA...so I wonder...are the maintenance fees really past due...and is this why the ASN was never reclaimed while the IP space (which was allocated by ARIN) was?
Anyone know the history behind ASN 2906 (Netflix)?
How did they get a number that low?
Rick
I didn’t recognize as2906 so went digging... and I can’t find a thing. ARIN has a “who has” service but my account on ARIN was locked and I wasn’t able to unlock without calling them (maybe tomorrow).
The AS-Name is “AS-SSI” (there is an AS-Set listed on RIPE named this) which I suspect might lead to the original owner. It looks familiar-ish but I’m not sure who had it before Netflix. Clearly they must have bought it outright, acquired the original owner, or something, but I’ll be damned if I can find historical data on who it originally belonged to.
-b
Check: https://web.archive.org/web/20030619092539/http://bgp.
potaroo.net:80/cgi-bin/as-report?as=AS2906&view=(null)
Appears in 2003 it was:
OrgName: NCR Corporation
-c
Hello NANOG...
I have a client interested in picking up a new AS number but they really want it to be 3 or 4 digits in length.
Is there a process to request this from ARIN, or doss anyone know of unused ASns fitting this that anyone is looking to sell for some quick cash?
It's part of the ARIN transfer process, https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/nrpm/ specific 8.3, "IPv4 numbers resources and ASNs may be transferred according to the following conditions."
ARIN has a Specified Transfer Listing Service, Specified Transfer Listing Service (STLS) - American Registry for Internet Numbers so you could check there.
I didn't see any ASNs listed, so you may need to call a broker, such as one listed under https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/transfers/facilitators/qualifiedfacilitators/
A list of ASNs that have been transferred policy can be found at ARIN - American Registry for Internet Numbers
Thanks!
James
Hope that helps,
Lee
I appreciate your tenacity!
SSI = Streaming Services Inc., always wholly owned by Netflix.
We had three ASNs at one point. We needed a fourth to do a migration and the ASN gods smiled down on us and gave us 2906 out of a newly released pool of unallocated ASNs, back in 2011.
That ASN birthed our CDN, Open Connect, and it became our primary because it was just too nice to use on a corporate network.
In a message written on Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 05:01:13AM +0000, James Breeden wrote:
I have a client interested in picking up a new AS number but they really want it to be 3 or 4 digits in length.
As other's have said, that's difficult.
What about going the other way? Ask for 2^32-1. "We have the biggest
ASN!"
What about going the other way? Ask for 2^32-1. "We have the biggest
ASN!"
Make ASNs great again?