Personal ASNs From India

Last Updated on 21/02/2026.

Last Updated on 21/02/2026.

Internet and its workings are interesting and complex. A node needs an IP address to connect to the Internet. A group of IP addresses with a common routing policy is known as an Autonomous System (AS). Each AS has a globally unique Autonomous System Number (ASN) and is maintained by a single entity or individual(s). Your ISP would have an ASN. IP addresses/prefixes are advertised (announced) by an AS through Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to its peers (ASes that it connects to) to steer bidirectional traffic.

Take an example of Public DNS service at 8.8.8.8, owned and operated by AS15169 Google LLC. AS15169, through BGP announcements, lets all its peers know that traffic destined for 8.8.8.0/24 (which encompasses the 8.8.8.8) prefix should be routed towards them. Following is the response of mtr -zt 8.8.8.8 for me:

mtr from Excitel to Google

From my Internet Service Provider (ISP), AS133982 Excitel Broadband, traffic travels to AS15169 to reach 8.8.8.8 (dns.google) and returns via the same path. This inter-AS traffic makes the Internet tick.

ASes come in different sizes and purposes. Like AS749 DoD Network Information Center, which holds more than 200 million+ IPv4 addresses (and IPv6 address space) for historical reasons or AS23860 Alliance Broadband Services which holds 68 thousand+ IPv4 addresses (and a bunch of IPv6 address space) for the purpose of providing consumer Internet.

Similarly, some individuals also run their personal ASN, including a bunch of Indians. Most of these Indian ASNs are IPv6 (primary or only) networks run for hobby and educational purposes. I was interested in this data, so I compiled a list of active ones (visible in the global routing table) from BGP.Tools:

Let me know if I’m missing someone.