American Registry for Internet Numbers
ARIN is the acronym for American Registry for Internet Numbers and represents the Regional Internet Registry (RIR).
Short overview
ARIN is a nonprofit corporation having as major objective to serve users of Internet number resources, such as Internet Service Providers, governments, and other end-users throughout its region. ARIN's service region consists of: Canada, the United States, and other islands located in the Caribbean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean.[1]
ARIN is part of the Regional Internet Registries (RIR). There are 5 RIRs and ARIN is one of them. The RIRs provide Internet Number Resource Services to the regions each registry is responsible of.
Due to the fact that today there are plenty of software programs being developed with the purpose to abuse networks, ARIN can provide further information regarding such network abuses because within the Whois Database of ARIn there can be found detailed information related to IP Addresses, and other such details. In the same way, within the Whois database of ARIN can be found information related to other RIR because such data is being shared. Thus, ARIN is in constant communication and collaboration with AfriNIC (the registry for Africa), APNIc (the registry for Asia Pacific), LACNIC (the registry for Latin American) and RIPE NCC (the registry for Europe and the Middle East).
ARIN History
During the 1980's, the person responsible with the assignment of IP Addresses was Jon Postel who offered as a volunteer to perform this type of job. However, as time passed this task became much more difficult, so that IANA (Internet Assigned Names and Numbers Authority) was created. IANA in association with RIR had as main responsibility the assignment and handling of registration tasks.
In the early 1990's the general Internet community agreed upon the separation between the management of domain names and the management of IP Addresses. This is when ARIN was established having to provide IP registration services. ARIN was created was a non-profit organization and corporation and started working since December 22 year 1997. [2]
ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) is incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia, USA. ARIN is one of five worldwide RIRs. ARIN as a nonprofit, membership organization which is governed by the Executive Board. The members of the Executive Board are being elected by its membership.
ARIN services
When it comes to services, ARIN ensured technical coordination and management of the Internet number resources which are divided into three(3) main types of services:
- Registration- are related to management and technical coordination;
- Organization- are related to the interaction of ARIN and its members and stakeholders;
- Policy Development- are related to the development of policies and technical coordination of Internet Number Resources within the ARIN region.[3]