[afnog] Winding-up afrinic
sm+afrinic at elandsys.com
sm+afrinic at elandsys.com
Thu Aug 7 11:43:58 UTC 2025
Dear Noah, Amin,
Please see Page 1 and 2 of the document at
https://afrinic.net/ast/pdf/59_Extra_Ord_180725.pdf
I have been trying to identify the potential
technology consequences. I listed an IP address
in an email to this mailing list [1]. I looked it up:
#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/tou/
#
# If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
# https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/inaccuracy_reporting/
#
# Copyright 1997-2025, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd.
#
#
# Query terms are ambiguous. The query is assumed to be:
# "n 196.216.2.36"
#
# Use "?" to get help.
#
NetRange: 196.0.0.0 - 196.255.255.255
CIDR: 196.0.0.0/8
NetName: NET196
NetHandle: NET-196-0-0-0-0
Parent: ()
NetType: Allocated to AfriNIC
OriginAS:
Organization: African Network Information Center (AFRINIC)
RegDate: 1993-05-01
Updated: 2010-11-09
Ref: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/196.0.0.0
ResourceLink: http://afrinic.net/en/services/whois-query
ResourceLink: whois.afrinic.net
OrgName: African Network Information Center
OrgId: AFRINIC
Address: Level 11ABC
Address: Raffles Tower
Address: Lot 19, Cybercity
City: Ebene
StateProv:
PostalCode:
Country: MU
RegDate: 2004-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-04
Comment: AfriNIC - http://www.afrinic.net
Comment: The African & Indian Ocean Internet Registry
Ref: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/AFRINIC
ReferralServer: whois://whois.afrinic.net
ResourceLink: http://afrinic.net/en/services/whois-query
OrgAbuseHandle: GENER11-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Generic POC
OrgAbusePhone: +230 4666616
OrgAbuseEmail: abusepoc at afrinic.net
OrgAbuseRef: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/GENER11-ARIN
OrgTechHandle: GENER11-ARIN
OrgTechName: Generic POC
OrgTechPhone: +230 4666616
OrgTechEmail: abusepoc at afrinic.net
OrgTechRef: https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/GENER11-ARIN
#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/tou/
#
# If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
# https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/inaccuracy_reporting/
#
# Copyright 1997-2025, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd.
#
% This is the AfriNIC Whois server.
% The AFRINIC whois database is subject to the
following terms of Use. See https://afrinic.net/whois/terms
% Note: this output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag.
% Information related to '196.216.2.0 - 196.216.3.255'
% Abuse contact for '196.216.2.0 - 196.216.3.255' is 'abuse at afrinic.net'
inetnum: 196.216.2.0 - 196.216.3.255
netname: AFRINIC
descr: AfriNIC - Internal Use
country: ZA
org: ORG-AFNC1-AFRINIC
admin-c: CA15-AFRINIC
tech-c: IT7-AFRINIC
status: ASSIGNED PI
mnt-by: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
mnt-domains: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
mnt-routes: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
mnt-irt: IRT-AFRINIC-IT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
parent: 196.0.0.0 - 196.255.255.255
organisation: ORG-AFNC1-AFRINIC
org-name: African Network Information Center - (AfriNIC) Ltd
org-type: RIR
country: MU
address: 11th Floor, Standard Chartered Tower
address: 19, Cybercity
address: Ebène
phone: tel:+230-466-6758
phone: tel:+230-403-5100
admin-c: CA15-AFRINIC
tech-c: IT7-AFRINIC
mnt-ref: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
mnt-ref: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
mnt-ref: AFRINIC-DB-MNT
mnt-by: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
remarks: =======================================
remarks: For more information on AFRINIC assigned blocks,
remarks: querry whois.afrinic.net port 43, or the web based
remarks: query at http://whois.afrinic.net or www.afrinic.net
remarks: website: www.afrinic.net
remarks: Other Contacts:
remarks: ===============
remarks: hostmaster at afrinic.net - for IP resources
remarks: new-member at afrinic.net - for new members and other
remarks: inquiries.
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: CTO AFRINIC
address: 11th Floor, Standard Chartered Tower
address: Cybercity, Ebène
address: Mauritius
phone: tel:+230-403-5100
nic-hdl: CA15-AFRINIC
mnt-by: CTO-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: Infrastructure Team
nic-hdl: IT7-AFRINIC
address: AFRINIC Ltd
address: 11th Floor, Standard Chartered Tower
address: 19, Cybercity
address: Ebène
address: Mauritius
phone: tel:+230-403-5100
phone: tel:+230-5943-8680
mnt-by: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
% Information related to '196.216.2.0/23AS33764'
route: 196.216.2.0/23
descr: AFRINIC-ZA-JNB-AS
origin: AS33764
mnt-by: AFRINIC-IT-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
The server hosting the mail service for this
mailing list is hosted by African Network
Information Centre (AfriNIC) Ltd (in
receivership). The information is useful to
anyone who is interested in finding out whom to
contact if there is an interoperability issue.
There was an outage in or around 2019. The local
press did not report the problem. It's unlikely
that a significant number of local users were
affected by that outage. I would not have been
able to apply a technical fix if I was impacted
as the problem as I don't have control over what
happens upstream. There was another incident
[2][3] in which a significant number of users in
a Northern African economy were impacted. My
hypothesis is that the potential technology
consequences of a winding-up would be localized
impact. In other words, the negative impact for
some prefixes would be negligible while others would not be accessible [4].
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
1. https://www.afnog.org/pipermail/afnog/2025-August/004869.html
2. It was RPKI-related.
3. There was another outage (could have been in 2021).
4. It's oversimplified. Prefixes are also used
in a non-routing context, e.g. to assess of trustworthiness.
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