Legacy Resources at ARIN

Services Available to Legacy Resource Holders

Legacy resource holders have access to a number of ARIN Services even if they are not under an ARIN Agreement. Organizations with legacy resources are also welcome to participate in ARIN’s Policy Development Process (PDP), including posting to mailing lists and attending ARIN Public Policy and Members Meetings.

As shown in the table above, organizations with legacy resources not covered under an ARIN Agreement are able to maintain their unique registration information in ARIN’s Whois/RDAP, as well as update and manage that information, manage reverse DNS delegations, maintain registry records in ARIN Online, and access DNS Security.

Organizations with legacy resources must be under an ARIN Agreement to access ARIN’s Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) and Internet Routing Registry (IRR). If you are interested in deploying those services for your resources, please visit the Registration Services Agreement page for more information.

ARIN Online Transactions that Do Not Require an ARIN Agreement

Individuals acting on behalf of registered Points of Contact and Org IDs can use ARIN Online at any time to perform the following resource management tasks:

• Add, delete, or modify nameservers for Reverse DNS.
• Add, delete, or modify Points of Contact associated with the resource.
• Change the NetName of an IP address block or the ASName of an Autonomous System Number (ASN).
• Add reassignment information via a simple reassignment. NOTE: This is only available if the legacy block is a direct allocation.
• Modify organization information to include mailing address; adding, deleting, or modifying Points of Contact; and adding public comments.
• Request new number resources.
• Request the transfer of number resources.
• Request an organization recovery. A Registration Services Agreement is only required if the organization recovery leads to a transfer.
• Validate your Point of Contact record during ARIN’s annual Point of Contact validation by logging in to ARIN Online and accessing the list of unvalidated Points of Contact on the Dashboard. You can also validate your Point of Contact by:
  • Clicking the secure link in the validation email that ARIN sends once per year.
  • Updating your Point of Contact record in ARIN Online if the information is no longer accurate.
• Submit questions via Ask ARIN.

The Legacy Registration Services Agreement and the Legacy Fee Cap

From 11 October 2007 through 31 December 2023, ARIN offered the Legacy Registration Services Agreement (LRSA) to organizations and individuals in the ARIN service region with legacy resources.

There is an annual fee for organizations holding legacy resources under an LRSA entered into prior to 1 January 2024 known as the legacy fee cap. This fee cap was retired on 31 December 2023. The annual invoice to collect this fee will be sent to the designated billing Point of Contact approximately 60 days before it is due. For any organization with legacy resources covered under an ARIN Agreement after 1 January 2024, annual Registration Service Plan fees will apply. Please see the Fee Schedule for more information.

History of Legacy Resources

Internet Protocol (IP) address space was originally administered by Jon Postel via a function known as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) (RFC 1060). Early on, Internet number resources were allocated liberally to any organization that fulfilled the simple request requirements without formal legal agreement. As the Internet grew globally, the administrative mechanisms of Internet number resource distribution could not continue to be managed efficiently by a single individual or organization. This led to distribution of the registration and management responsibilities and ultimately to the formation of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) system (RFC 1366).

When ARIN (one of the five RIRs) was formed in December 1997, it was tasked with the administration and management of the entire database of IPv4 addresses and ASNs that were not administered by either of the two existing European (RIPE NCC) and Asia-Pacific (APNIC) regional registries. These previously assigned resources are often referred to as legacy number resources. At its formation, the ARIN Board of Trustees decided that ARIN would provide registration services for these legacy number resources without requiring the original resource holders to enter into a Registration Services Agreement or pay service fees.

Early Registration Transfer Project

As the RIR system matured, it was decided that the interests of the legacy resource holders would be best served by having these resources administered by the RIR operating in the region where the Internet number resources were being used. The outcome of consultations with the community led to the development of the Early Registration Transfer (ERX) project, whereby early registrations were moved from the ARIN database into the appropriate RIR databases beginning in 2003. These number resources are now administered by the respective RIR in the region where the resources are being used.