Understanding IP Range Details: BGP vs WHOIS

The Issue

The page currently associates INITCORE with the entire /23 range, even though INITCORE only owns 84.33.247.0/24. The full /23 range actually includes two distinct /24 blocks:

So why does INITCORE show up on the /23 page?

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: How Our Pages Work

Our IP Range Details pages are built around BGP prefix announcements, not WHOIS records. That means:

  • The /ASN/prefix pages (like /AS34081/84.33.246.0/23) reflect what the ASN is announcing via BGP.
  • The company name and domain info come from WHOIS, which we match to the closest range; sometimes it’s an exact match, sometimes it’s smaller or larger.

In this case, INITCORE has a WHOIS record for 84.33.247.0/24, but the BGP prefix is for the entire /23. That’s why INITCORE appears on the page, even though they don’t own the full range.

How Common Is This?

We ran the numbers:

  • 32% of entries are exact matches between WHOIS and BGP
  • 62% have WHOIS records that fully cover the BGP prefix
  • Only 6.4% (like this case) have WHOIS ranges smaller than the BGP prefix