# FAQ

# What is the RIPE Database?

The RIPE Database contains information about:

  • Allocations and assignments of IP address space
  • Routing Registry Information
  • Reverse DNS Delegations
  • Related objects

The data is entered into the RIPE Database mainly by operators of IP networks within the RIPE NCC service region. These are the maintainers of the data. The RIPE NCC supports the operation of the RIPE Database. The maintainers are primarily responsible for the data but the RIPE NCC also has some responsibility as a Database Controller. The responsibilities are explained in more detail in the RIPE Database Terms and Conditions.

The data is accessible by Whois query (whois.ripe.net) and through a web interface (opens new window), subject to the RIPE Database terms and conditions.

# What is acceptable use of the RIPE Database?

The purpose and use of the RIPE Database is defined in the RIPE Database terms and conditions. The purpose of the RIPE Database is to assist the operation of the Internet in the RIPE region. Use of information from the RIPE Database for activities such as marketing, advertising and distributing Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE) is covered by the Terms and Conditions.

# What is a netname?

A netname is a mandatory attribute of an inetnum object which contains a short but meaningful name of the IP allocation or assignment. Two or more inetnum objects can have the same netname. The netname attribute is a look-up key, one can query the RIPE Database supplying the netname as an argument. The result of the query will show all inetnum objects with that netname.

# What is a nic-hdl?

A "nic-handle" is a unique identifier that references RIPE Database objects containing contact details for a specific person or role. Other RIPE Database objects list contact details by their nic-handle. This is a more reliable identifier than an email address or a person's name (which may not be unique).

# Can I use a nic-handle from another Regional Internet Registry Database in the RIPE Database?

Yes, but you must create a person/role object in the RIPE Database to ensure referential integrity. There is no existing distributed database of person/role objects (i.e. contact information). Please note that updating an object in one database does not mean the object will be updated in any other database.

# What is a tech-c and what is an admin-c?

An "admin-c" (administrative contact) and "tech-c" (technical contact) are network contacts, required to be listed by their nic-handles in certain RIPE Database objects. This is done for operational correspondence such as Network troubleshooting. The admin-c must be physically located at the site of the network. The tech-c does not need to be physically located at the site of the network. You can have multiple admin-c, tech-c and zone-c attributes in an object, each of them referencing different person or role objects.

# Why has my 'as-name:' not been accepted?

The 'as-name:' should be a short name associated with the Autonomous System (AS). We recommend that the name reflects the name of the organisation that will use the AS Number. The name should be made up of letters, digits, the character underscore "_", and the character hyphen "-"; the first character of a name must be a letter, and the last character of a name must be a letter or a digit. The following words are reserved by RPSL, and they can not be used as names: any, as-any, rs-any, peers, and, or, not, atomic, from, to, at, action, accept, announce, except, refine, networks, into, inbound, outbound

Names starting with certain prefixes are reserved for certain object types. Names starting with "as-" are reserved for as set names. Names starting with "rs-" are reserved for route set names. Names starting with "rtrs-" are reserved for router set names. Names starting with "fltr-" are reserved for filter set names. Names starting with "prng-" are reserved for peering set names. Names starting with "irt-" are reserved for irt names.

# Can I register a domain name in the RIPE Database?

No, the RIPE NCC does not register domain names. A decision was made by the RIPE community to remove all forward domain names from the RIPE Database.

# How do I register a PERSON or ROLE object in the RIPE Database?

New RIPE Database users should create a role and maintainer pair (opens new window). If you already have a maintainer object, you can use webupdates (opens new window) to create a additional objects.

Please note that person objects registered in the RIPE Database should be referenced from other objects in the RIPE Database, either directly or through a role object. Unreferenced objects will be deleted after 90 days.

# Someone has created a person object with my personal details in the RIPE Database. Why did they do this?

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) put information about their customers in the RIPE Database. This is usually because you have signed an agreement with the ISP to obtain Internet services from them and given your consent to publish your personal details in the RIPE Database. If you are unhappy with this, please contact your ISP. If you cannot resolve this issue with your ISP, please contact the RIPE NCC (opens new window).

# My information in the RIPE Database is not correct, can you please update my object(s)?

The RIPE Database Terms and Conditions detail who is responsible for maintaining data in the RIPE Database. We suggest you contact the maintainer of the data that is incorrect and ask them to change it. If it is personal data that is incorrect and you are not satisfied with the response from the maintainer, please contact the RIPE NCC (opens new window).

# How do I delete an object from the RIPE Database?

If you query for your object in the RIPE Database web interface (opens new window), you will see the option to update it in the top right corner.

After logging in with your RIPE NCC Access account, you may be required to authenticate against the maintainer that protects the object if it is not yet associated with your account.

You will then get to the screen where you can modify the object. The "delete" button is in the bottom left corner.

After selecting "Delete this object", you will be asked for an optional reason. Once you provide this, the object will be removed from the RIPE Database.

# My update failed. Please explain why it failed.

There are many reasons why an update could fail. Usually, the failure reasons listed in the acknowledgement message you received are self-explanatory. The errors and warnings are contained in the "***ERROR:" and "***WARNING:" lines attached to the object which failed. Please read these lines carefully. Often the errors are simple syntax errors in the object. Check your object for typing mistakes.

Another common mistake is to query the RIPE Database for an object without using the -B query flag, then submit the returned object in an update. This results in submitting a filtered object, indicated by the line 'source: RIPE # Filtered' in the query response.

Sometimes, your update fails with this error message: "***Error: Authorisation failed". This means that you haven't supplied the correct credentials to satisfy the authorisation needed for the maintainer that protects the object. The maintainer is notified of a failed attempt to update this object.

Please note that if you send several objects in one message and at least one of them fails, the subject of the acknowledgment message will start with "FAILED:". This does not mean that the whole update failed, only that some updates were unsuccessful. Please check the message carefully to see which objects were not updated.

# I received a message with the subject "Notification of RIPE Database changes", but I didn't do anything and don't understand the message. What is it?

The message you received has been automatically sent to you from the RIPE Database software. The purpose of this notification is to inform you that some objects have been changed in the RIPE Database. You received the message because you were either listed in a "notify:" attribute of the object itself, or in a "mnt-nfy:" attribute of the mntner that protects the object.

If you did not create or update the object yourself, then someone else did this. The e-mail address from which the update came is usually mentioned in the notification message. Please contact that e-mail address for questions and clarifications about the update.

# What are the authorisation rules for route object creation?

Refer to protection of route object space.

# Can I download the RIPE Database software?

Yes you can download the RIPE database Whois server software from GitHub (opens new window).

# Can I download the RIPE Database?

We produce daily snapshots which are available to the public. You can find these files at our FTP site (opens new window) or split by object type (opens new window).

These daily snapshots exclude the person object type and other personal data is dummified. For data protection reasons, personal data is not available in bulk format.

Another way to "download" the RIPE Database is to become a Near-Real-Time Mirror (NRTM). This means that you run a copy of the database at your site that keeps up-to-date with the master server by regularly downloading the most recent updates. All personal data is excluded from the NRTM download and updates. For more information, refer to Access to NRTM.

# I cannot find any information about a network in the RIPE Database. Can I look somewhere else?

Yes: try full text search (opens new window).

# How do I register reverse-delegations in the RIPE Database?

To register reverse-delegations in the RIPE Database, see Reverse Delegations (opens new window).

# I want to have an IP to country conversion table; can I get it?

The inetnum object represents IP address space in the RIPE Database; this object has a 'country' attribute. However, you should not rely on this information to be 100% accurate.

Resource holders can also add a "geofeed:" attribute to associate IP addresses to geographic locales. Refer to RFC9092 (opens new window) for more information.

# I want to peer with an Autonomous System (AS). How do I do this?

Once an AS number has been assigned to you, you are responsible for keeping it up to date. It is important that your aut-num object in the RIPE Database reflects reality. If you have new peers and/or stop peering with one or more Autonomous Systems, please update your aut-num object. You update this object in the same way as any other object in the RIPE Database.

# Can I enter several contacts in one RIPE Database object?

Yes. You can have multiple admin-c, tech-c and zone-c attributes in an object, each of them referencing different contact record, person or role objects.

# How do I update an object in the RIPE Database?

If you query for your object in the RIPE Database web interface (opens new window), you will see the option to update it in the top right corner.

After logging in with your RIPE NCC Access account, you may be required to authenticate against the maintainer that protects the object if it is not yet associated with your account. You will then get to the screen where you can modify the object.

# Where are the RIR Databases, and what do they contain?

There are five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Each maintains a database holding details of IP address registrations in their regions. The RIR databases are located at:

AFRINIC (opens new window) (Africa) ARIN (opens new window) (North America, some Caribbean and North Atlantic Islands) APNIC (opens new window) (Asia Pacific region) LACNIC (opens new window) (Southern and Central America and some Caribbean Islands) RIPE NCC (opens new window) (Europe, the Middle East, parts of Central Asia)

# Why did I receive an Error 201: Access Denied?

There are several cases when this might occur. Please see below for the one which applies to your situation:

  • You (or your application) performed too many queries that returned contact information (e.g. person or role objects) from the RIPE Database. There is a daily limit on the amount of personal data returned as described in the Acceptable Use Policy.
  • Even if you queried for other types of objects, the associated contact information is returned by default. To avoid this situation please use the -r flag to prevent any associated contact information from being returned.
  • You used a proxy server to access the RIPE Database (such as a third-party web query interface). In this case, it is likely that the proxy itself was denied access to the database. Please contact then administrators of the server you were using and discuss this situation with them. They may need to contact the RIPE Database administration ripe-dbm@ripe.net team to request further access.
  • If none of the above describes your situation, please contact the RIPE Database administration team ripe-dbm@ripe.net to discuss the problem further.

# How do I generate glue record for a DOMAIN object?

Here is an example:

domain: 8.8.8.e164.arpa
descr: Example domain for the reserved prefix +888
[...]
nserver: ns1.8.8.8.e164.arpa 192.0.2.1
nserver: ns2.8.8.8.e164.arpa 192.0.2.129
nserver: ns1.example.net
nserver: ns2.example.net
[...]

In this example, the first two "nserver:" attributes contain one glue IP address. THe last two "nserver:" attributes do not need glue, as they are in a different domain - example.net.

# How will I know what to fix if the DOMAIN object update failed?

The responses from our server will include diagnostic messages. You can get further help by sending an email to ripe-dbm@ripe.net.

# How long until an update appears in the DNS?

If you see a message saying that your update was successful, it will be visible in the DNS after around an hour.

# Which TTL value is used?

We will use the default value for the e164.arpa zone. If you need a specific TTL (Time to Live) value, send an email to enum-request@ripe.net.