untangling_the_web

DID: 4046925
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Regional Registries and NICs
Despite the "wild west" metaphors applied to the Internet, in one respect it is quite
orderly. Domain names and IP addresses are assigned, registered, and stored in
repositories around the world that are publicly accessible from anywhere. This
means it is usually a simple matter to find an IP address given a domain name and
vice versa. But the registries store other valuable information as well, such as who
has registered the IP address, associated domain names, the network name, the
registering organization name and address, and points of contact (usually system
administrators), along with their phone/fax numbers and email addresses.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the nonprofit
corporation that was formed to take over responsibility for the IP address
space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management,
and root server system management functions previously performed under
US-government contract by lANA, InterNIC, and other entities. While there is virtually
no limit to the number of possible domain names, there are very definite limits to
the number of IP addresses available, which means distribution and allocation of IP
addresses is strictly controlled. IP address space is distributed hierarchically by
ICANN, which allocates blocks of IP address space to Regional Internet Registries
(RIRs) (more often called Network Information Centers-NICs). These RIRs in
turn allocate blocks of IP addresses to Local Internet Registries. It is these local
registries that assign IP addresses to local ISPs, who in turn allocate addresses to
end users.
There are five Regional Internet Registries:
RIPE NCC for Europe and the Middle East
APNIC for the Asian/Pacific countries and
ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers
LACNIC, the Latin American and Caribbean Network Information Center
AfriNIC, the African Network Information Center
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