IP Address Registries and Management

The internet uses logical addresses, called Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, to identify  devices on the internet and to permit information sharing. Each IP address is a unique number based on the IPv4 standard. IPv4 creates addresses using combinations of integers resulting in about 4 billion possible combinations. Unfortunately, IP addresses are not an unlimited resource. IP address management is the responsibility of Regional Internet Registries (RIRs); there is an RIR for each part of the world. Each RIR maintains a set of rules and policies to ensure that the distribution of IP addresses is fair and reasonable.

Hosting.com conforms to the North American IP Registry (ARIN) policies for IP address management. We provide justification for assigning IP addresses to ensure that we do not waste or horde them. The written justification form we ask you to provide us when ordering IP addresses helps us demonstrate to ARIN that the IP addresses Hosting.com consumes are being used efficiently. When Hosting.com asks for more IP addresses we may be asked to demonstrate efficient usage of the IP addresses we have received previously. If we cannot do that, then we may not be able to get more. If you need more than 64 addresses (/26) we will ask you to complete a justification form.

1. How many IP addresses can I have under the ARIN policy?
   
   ARIN guidelines allow organizations to use IP addresses based on immediate utilization (what you know you need today) plus three- and six-month utilization expectation with documentation to justify the level of confidence in the utilization.
2. Can’t I just make up the justification?
   
   No. We actually do look at and validate submissions to make sure requests do not contain false utilization data. We have several methods to validate data through scripts, domain name resolution, etc.
3. What are examples of responsible uses of IP addresses?
   
   There are many possible reasons that an organization would have a legitimate need for IP address(es). Examples could include servers that are accessed by other hosts, security requirements (such as SSL), or network connectivity to a server architecture.
4. What are examples of irresponsible uses of IP addresses?
   
   SPAM applications using multiple IPs (email, search engines, etc), some proxy services, etc. Also, when hosting multiple websites on a single server, you can utilize host headers instead of dedicated IPs (assuming no SSL). Doing so will not affect Google and other search engine rankings.
5. Where can I go for more information?
   
   ARIN’s website has documentation on all policies, we suggest you visit ARIN Guidelines (https://www.arin.net/)