AfriNIC allocates number resources (IP v4/v6 addresses and AS numbers) to AfriNIC member organisations within the AfriNIC service region. To request for IP addresses from us, you must complete appropriate IP request template and e-mail it to hostmaster@afrinic.net. Resource allocation/assignment is a service available only to AfriNIC members in good standing. In case your organisation is not yet an AfriNIC member, please write to new-member@afrinic.net to inquire about the process of becoming an AfriNIC member. (Also see FAQ 2 below).

AfriNIC has a online membership application form which is available at http://my.afrinic.net/registration. When you complete the form you will receive a copy of the Service Agreement by email which you need to sign and
fax to us on +2304666758. Our team will then get in touch with you immediately. (It would be a plus to send a follow-up mail to new-member@afrinic.net after sending these documents). The originals of the above documents must also be couriered to this address

AfriNIC members have access to AfriNIC member services: Allocation/assignment of internet number resources and various LIR training courses - which teach our members on how to interact with our whois database, and also have IPv6 hands-on training and will soon include DNS-SEC modules. At the moment, these courses are open to anyone, but will soon be limited to AfriNIC members only.

This is purely an operational issue. If your IP addresses have been assigned by your upstream provider, chances are that when you change to another upstream ISP, you will have to return these IPs to your old upstream ISP and receive another range from your new upstream. If you have a large network, renumbering to the new IPs will be a very time consuming, labour intensive and costly exercise, not to mention the downtimes that some core services will experience. If you have your own IP address space from AfriNIC, changing upstream ISPs is an issue of informing your new upstream about your allocation.

Main types are "LIR" and "End-User". LIR membership is mainly for ISPs - who will need to assign and sub-allocate IP address space from their allocation to their customers. Organisations that will never assign IP address to another party can register as "End-Users".

The procedure is the same as FAQ 1 above. To see if the ASN policy requirements are met, this table summarises all requirements per resource type.

An excellent Reverse Delegation "Mini-Howto" is available from the documents' section of our website. You may contact hostmaster@afrinic.net if you have properly followed the instructions in the document, and reverse delegation still looks broken/non-functional.

There are very good documents that explain the working of the AfriNIC whois database: The AfriNIC DB reference manual and the AfriNIC DB supporting document . If you still find lots of complications even after reading these documents, we advise that you enrol for one of our LIR training courses, the schedule of which is available at the training section of the afrinic website.

MyAfriNIC is an interactive, intuitive and user-friendly web-based Interface that enables AfriNIC members to manage their account, information and resources with enhanced service and support.

AfriNIC is not involved in domain name registration. Your ISP may be able to help you register a domain name. For more information about TLDs (Top Level Domains) and ccTLDs (Country Code Top Level Domain) registrations, please visit the ICANN website.

AfriNIC does not sell IP addresses - they are a shared public resource and are not for sale. Effective management of this resource is vital to maintain the ongoing health of the Internet. If you obtain IP addresses from AfriNIC, you will have the right to continue using those addresses provided that you use them in accordance with the AfriNIC allocation and assignment policies and provided that your membership remains in good standing. The use of IP addresses is subject to membership fees being paid and renewed.

Classful addressing (class A, class B, class C, etc) is now defunct. We no longer use that terminology. The original model for distributing IP addresses, based on classful addressing strategies did not take into account the massive expansion of Internet use and was unable to scale to meet this expansion. Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) is now a fundamental requirement for eligibility to receive IP address space. All requests for address space must be supported by documentation showing a technically justified need for the quantity requested (that is, they must be used efficiently, according to best current practice). Quantities of address space are now referred to by their prefix length (or subnet mask). For example, /24 ("slash 24") refers to 256 IP address numbers, or the equivalent of a former class C; and /19 refers to 8,192 IP address numbers, or the equivalent of 32 former class Cs.

AfriNIC does not guarantee that any address space it allocates will be globally routable. This is because the filtering policies implemented by transit providers around the world are beyond our control. The best way to avoid filtering problems is to ensure that your network is numbered into the address range of a larger network , so that many addresses can be aggregated and announced globally as a single route. The shorter prefix of such a global route will increase its chances of being unaffected by the filtering policies of large transit providers. We have carried out extensive tests to ensure that the minimum allocation (/22) from AfriNIC blocks is not filtered.

Yes. There is a request form that must be downloaded, completed and faxed to +230 466 6758 for review and evaluation. Please find this form here .

AfriNIC does not support the "rwhois" protocol formerly available to members from the ARIN service region. All (re)assignments and sub-allocations MUST be recorded in the AfriNIC whois database according to the procedure detailed here .