On Sat, Sep 20, 2025 at 9:32 PM Jon Lewis <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Sep 2025, David Farmer via ARIN-PPML wrote: > > > Please explain what is confusing about the current usage of both LIR and > ISP? > > The following Blog post from ARIN seems perfectly straightforward to me; > > https://www.arin.net/blog/2023/02/28/ISP-or-end-user/ > > > > And the following page is about Requesting IP addresses. > > https://www.arin.net/resources/guide/request/ > > > > > > They both seem to address the idea that LIR and ISP are effectively the > same thing. > > Just a week ago, I asked if someone could give examples of how an ARIN > member could be an LIR and not be an ISP, and was told "there are ways". > > The page referenced above is confusing, because it simultaneously says ISP > = LIR and LIR != ISP. If an LIR is "generally" an ISP, then that suggests > there are circumstances in which an LIR is not an ISP. > Many organizations reassign addresses to other organizations, acting as LIRs, but don't consider themselves to be ISPs, at least not by most common definitions of the term. Some examples are Government Agencies, Universities, and Education (K-12) Service Organizations. In the private sector, managed service providers (MSPs) provide outsourced technology solutions for hospitals and other organizations. They contract with ISPs on behalf of their customers, and therefore don't think of themselves as ISPs but as an intermediary that manages ISPs for their customers. In the broadest sense, yes, they could all be called ISPs, but if the definition of ISP is too narrow, there could exist LIRs that are not ISPs. On top of that, there are also political or regulatory reasons why some LIRs don't want to be known as ISPs, regardless of how broad you make the definition of the term ISP. Thanks. -- =============================================== David Farmer Email:[email protected] Networking & Telecommunication Services Office of Information Technology University of Minnesota 2218 University Ave SE Phone: 612-626-0815 Minneapolis, MN 55414-3029 Cell: 612-812-9952 ===============================================
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