Differences in data for the ASN and IP to Company database
The ASN database and the IP to Company database contain AS information for IP addresses; in some rare instances, the information provided by the two databases may not match.
Recommendation:
If the user is seeking ASN information from IP addresses, we recommend using our ASN database or our free IP to ASN database instead of the IP to Company database.
What is the nature of the discrepancy?
[Written in May, 2023. Data may change at a future date]
Consider the IP address: 172.232.77.103
Full API JSON Payload
{
"ip": "172.232.77.103",
"hostname": "172-232-77-103.ip.linodeusercontent.com",
"city": "Mumbai",
"region": "Maharashtra",
"country": "IN",
"loc": "19.0728,72.8826",
"postal": "400070",
"timezone": "Asia/Kolkata",
"asn": {
"asn": "AS63949",
"name": "Akamai Connected Cloud",
"domain": "linode.com",
"route": "172.232.64.0/20",
"type": "hosting"
},
"company": {
"name": "Linode",
"domain": "linode.com",
"type": "hosting"
},
"privacy": {
"vpn": false,
"proxy": false,
"tor": false,
"relay": false,
"hosting": true,
"service": ""
},
"abuse": {
"address": "US, PA, Philadelphia, 249 Arch St, 19106",
"country": "US",
"email": "abuse@linode.com",
"name": "Linode Abuse Support",
"network": "172.232.0.0/13",
"phone": "+1-609-380-7100"
}
}
The IP address is owned by Linode, which is a subsidiary of Akamai.
ASN database result
The ASN database shows the following information for the IP address:
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
ASN |
AS63949 |
DOMAIN |
http://linode.com/ |
NAME |
Akamai Connected Cloud |
TYPE |
hosting |
COUNTRY |
SG |
According to the ASN database, the IP address ASN is: AS63949
IP to Company database result
The IP to Company database, shows the following information for the IP address:
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
NAME |
Linode |
DOMAIN |
http://linode.com/ |
TYPE |
hosting |
ASN |
AS20940 |
AS_NAME |
Akamai International B.V. |
AS_DOMAIN |
http://akamai.com/ |
AS_TYPE |
hosting |
COUNTRY |
US |
According to the IP to Company database, the ASN for the IP address is: AS20940
Why do the databases do not match?
In our ASN database products, we look into the ASN data provided by RIR/IANA. From the ASN information, we extract the IP address ranges and, consequentially, individual IP addresses. From the IP to ASN mapping perspective, this data is absolutely accurate.
However, for the IP to Company database, the priority is identifying organizations and companies from IP addresses. We will mainly look into the WHOIS database, then identify IP ranges and the organizations that own those IP ranges. When we map the IP address to the ASN here, we infer the ASN instead of directly attributing each IP address to its actual ASN. So, from the organizations we have identified from the IP address, we will identify the ASN from the organizations.
This inference of ASN means that we would sometime attribute an IP address to a bigger ASN of a company instead of a smaller and specific ASN of the IP address.
Recommendation
We are aware of this issue; however, at this moment, we have not published a fix at the moment of writing this. We deem the impact of this issue to be minimal.
IP to Company database’s core purpose is to map IP addresses to organizations. And we are confident about the accuracy of data for the purpose. The ASN provided in the company database does match the company, and most of the time matches the ASN exactly. Issue arises when there are smaller and specific ASNs.
If the user wants to look up specific ASNs of IP addresses, we recommend using our ASN database or our free IP to ASN database. The ASN data accuracy there is precise and covers smaller ASNs as well.
On the API side, we don’t have this issue as the ASN database provided there comes from the ASN database and company data only covers the company aspects of the IP to Company database.
Related databases
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