Glossary
Attribute Continuation Line
When an attribute value uses more than one line, the extra lines are continuation lines.
Autonomous System (AS)
A group of IP networks that have a single and clearly defined external routing policy, operated by one or more network operators.
Autonomous System (AS) Number
A unique, numeric value given to an AS. The range of numbers starts at 0 and extends up to a maximum value held by a 32-bit unsigned number 4,294,967,295.
Canonical
Standard or typical. For Ipv6 and DNS, it represents a standard textual representation format.
Child Object
This object is one level down (more specific) in a hierarchy of INETNUM or INET6NUM objects
Child objects are more specific
Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are structured in hierarchies with 0/0 and ::/0 as the roots of the structures. The root objects have child objects forming the next layer in the hierarchical structure. The root objects are therefore the parents of the child objects. This is repeated throughout the structure as more layers are added. Parent objects are considered to be less specific than the child objects. Child objects are considered to be more specific to the parent objects.
Contact Details
All details relating to name, postal address, phone, fax, email or any other form of electronic communication that is used by a person or an organisation.
Data Contained Therein
A legal phrase referring to information stored in the RIPE Database.
Data Controller
A person or organisation that determines the purpose and the manner in which personal data is processed.
Dictionary Attacks
In computer security, this is a technique for breaking an authorisation mechanism by trying to determine a password, passphrase or an encryption key by trying hundreds or sometimes millions of likely possibilities, such as words in a dictionary.
Domain Name
A unique name that identifies an Internet location such as a website.
Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a suite of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is a set of extensions to DNS which provide to DNS clients (resolvers) origin authentication of DNS data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality.
Dummification
A process that removes personally identifiable information from the RIPE Database output.
Dummified
When all personally identifiable information has been removed from the data.
ENUM
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocol that maps E.164 telephone numbers to Internet services using the DNS.
Global Resource Service (GRS)
The RIPE NCC operated mirrors of the other RIRs' databases as well as some of the major routing registries. Only operational data is stored based on the published statistics of authoritative resources from each RIR. The RIPE Whois service allows this set of mirrors to be queried as a single logical database and returns authoritative responses from the appropriate source.
Glue Record
The IP address of a name server held at the Domain Name registry. Glue records are required when you wish to set the name servers of a domain name to a hostname under the domain name itself.
Heuristic
Using experience-based techniques for problem-solving.
Hierarchical Address Space
Individual IP addresses are 'flat' addresses. Each address is unique but it does not say anything about where the address is relative to any other address. They are usually allocated and assigned as ranges of addresses. Further sub allocations and assignments can be made from allocations. This builds an administrative hierarchy within the address space, even though the address space itself is not hierarchical.
IANA
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
in-addr.arpa
A special domain name used to achieve reverse delegation for IPv4 addresses.
INET(6)NUM
A common abbreviation meaning both INETNUM and INET6NUM objects.
Internet Number Registry (INR)
A registry that allocated Internet number resources and holds and publishes details of Internet number resource information.
Internet Number Resources
Globally unique address space (IPv4 and IPv6) and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) issued by any Internet Number Registry.
Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)
IPv4 uses 32-bit (four-byte) addresses, which gives a total pool of 4,294,967,296 (2^32) addresses. These addresses are normally represented in a dotted quad notation. An example of an IPv4 address is: 192.0.2.35.
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which gives a total pool of 2^128 addresses. These addresses are normally represented as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons. An example of an IPv6 address is:2001:db8:cd0f:421d:2209:bc:80ba:2095.
Internet Routing Registry (IRR)
A registry that holds and publishes details of Internet routing information.
IP Address
A unique numerical address used to identify a particular piece of hardware connected to the Internet. An IP address services two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing.
ip6.arpa
A special domain name used to achieve reverse delegation for IPv6 addresses.
Latin-1
A character set defined by ISO8859-1.
Legacy Resource
Internet number resources that we distributed before (or outside of) the current system of hierarchical distribution by the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
Less Specific
Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are structured in hierarchies with 0/0 and ::/0 as the roots of the structures. The root objects have child objects forming the next layer in the hierarchical structure. The root objects are therefore the parents of the child objects. This is repeated throughout the structure as more layers are added. Parent objects are considered to be less specific than the child objects. Child objects are considered to be more specific to the parent objects.
Maintainer
Any Registrant or person to whom the authority to Update has been delegated by a Registrant either directly or indirectly, and who holds an identifier that allows updates to be authenticated and authorised.
MD5 Password Hash
MD5 is an algorithm for converting a password or passphrase into a hash of characters.
Nested
A series of objects are nested when one references the next, that references the next, and so on.
Network Information Centre (NIC) handle
A sequence of characters that form a unique identifying string used to identify contacts in the RIPE Database (people and business roles).
Object Template
A pattern or guide describing the characteristics of a specific object type.
Object Type
There are many different RIPE Database objects representing different pieces of information. They are grouped by type, for example a person object type holds contact information for a person.
Overlap
One address range crosses the boundary of another address range. For example: inetnum: 10.240.89.60 - 10.240.89.67 inetnum: 10.240.89.64 - 10.240.89.79
Parent Object
This object is one level up (less specific) in a hierarchy of INETNUM or INET6NUM objects.
Parse / Parsing
Analyse (a string or text) into logical syntactic components, typically in order to test conformance to a logical grammar.
Personally Identifiable Information
A legal phrase that means information that can be used to identify a person.
Prefix
IP address prefixes are patterns which match the first n binary bits of an IP address where n is the prefix.
Prefix Notification
Specifies ranges using two parts: the starting address and its length (or prefix).
Primary Key
A unique identifier in the RIPE Database within a set of objects of the same type.
Primary Objects
The set of objects that contain all the operational data in the RIPE Database. All other (secondary) objects are there to support the primary objects.
Pseudo-attribute
An attribute added to an object, or an update message, that is not part of the RPSL object structure. It is needed for the management of the object(s) in the update message. For example supplying a password for an update using the "password:" pseudo attribute.
Query the RIPE Database
To request information from the RIPE Database
Range Notation
Specifies ranges using two parts: the starting address and the end address separated by a hyphen and space characters ('-')
Registrant
A natural person or legal entity to whom an Internet number resource has been registered or who has registered any other primary object in the RIPE Database by specific or general agreement with the RIPE NCC.
Required attribute
The syntax rules define this attribute as optional. However, additional business rules require this attribute to be present under some circumstances.
Resource Holder
A person or organisation to which an Internet resource has been registered.
Reverse Delegation
Allows mapping to a domain name from an IP address.
RIPE Community
RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens) is a collaborative forum open to all parties interested in wide area IP networks in Europe and beyond. The objective of RIPE is to ensure the administrative and technical coordination necessary to enable the operation of a pan-European IP network.
RIPE Database
The publicly available data collection of Internet Number Registry (INR) data, Internet Routing Registry (IRR) data and Reverse Delegation data published by the RIPE NCC. It contains all the primary and secondary objects. There is also some non-public data required for the operation of the RIPE Database and the registries. Its full title is the RIPE Network Management Database. Or sometime it is referred to as the RIPE Whois Database. But for simplicity it is mostly referred to as the RIPE Database. These names are interchangeable and all mean the same thing.
RIPE Database Attribute
The key name for a formatted element of data in a RIPE Database object. The format may be well defined or free format. An attribute must always have a value associated with it. Unless it is free format, the value cannot be blank. Attributes are sometimes referred to as keys.
RIPE Database Object
A record in the RIPE Database containing information about an Internet resource or some supporting or administrative details.
RIPE Internet Number Registry (RIPE INR)
A registry managed by the RIPE NCC that allocated Internet number resources and holds and publishes details of RIPE resources.
RIPE Internet Routing Registry (RIPE IRR)
A registry managed by the RIPE NCC that holds and publishes details of Internet routing information.
RIPE NCC Service Region
This defines the geographical area in which the RIPE NCC provides services as an RIR. This includes Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia.
RIPE Policy Development Process (PDP)
The RIPE community develops and sets policies through a long-established, open, bottom-up process of discussion and consensus-based decision-making.
ROUTE(6)
A common abbreviation meaning both ROUTE and ROUTE6 objects
Routing Policy Specification Language (RPSL)
Allows a network operator to be able to specify routing policies at various levels in the Internet hierarchy.
Routing Policy System Security (RPSS)
The Internet Routing Registry (IRR) is used for purposes that have a strong requirements for data integrity and security. The Routing Policy System Security addresses issues of data integrity and security consistent with the usage of the IRR and which avoids compromising data integrity and security.
Secondary Objects
A set of objects that exist in the RIPE Database to support the primary objects.
Uniform Resource identifier (URI)
The generic term for all types of names and addresses that refer to objects on the World Wide Web. A URL (Uniform Resource Locator or web address) is one kind of URI.
Update the RIPE Database
Submit information for entry into or removal from the RIPE Database.
UTF8
A character encoding capable of encoding all possible characters.
whois Database
An interchangeable phrase sometimes used to describe the RIPE Database. It can also be used to describe other types of databases like domain name registries.