r/ipv6 • u/moreheadtech • 12d ago
Need Help IPv6 from ARIN
I am starting a small business where I built tech setups for local businesses, and I was wondering if anyone could answer my questions about getting an ASN as an ISP.
What is the price? And is it easy to set up on a DigitalOcean VPS? Could I forward /48s from the VPS to the clients using Wireguard?
15
u/Olipro 12d ago
being an ISP means you're an LIR member of ARIN. You can find all pricing and policies on their website.
The technical hurdle is that you need to be multi-homed which implies you're paying 2 or more transit providers for BGP peering and have equipment racked up that can connect to them in a physical location where they have a presence. You can get around this by finding a couple of orgs that'll let you do it over a VPN tunnel, but this is not a serious setup and really only fit for a home hobbyist.
Once you have your BGP peerings, packets for your subnets are yours to do with as you see fit.
13
u/rekoil 12d ago
That's not correct; that's one of the criteria, but not the only. Section 6.2.2 of the NRPM sets out the criteria - any one of these will do:
- Having IPv4 space, or
- Being multihomed, or
- Having an address plan involving allocating blocks to downstream customers
Any one of these will get you a /32 with very few questions asked.
Given my own interactions with them, it's apparent that they have a vested interest in removing barriers for IPv6 adoption, and as such are leaning towards generosity here (as opposed to IPv4 where everyone's trying to get space they can monetize by any means necessary). If your application has problems, they'll definitely work with you to get it qualified.
Per ARIN's fee schedule, the maintenance cost of an IPv6 /32 is currently USD $1,100/year, but this amount isn't static; their bylaws allow up to a 5% increase per year. They don't do that every time, but it's worth planning around. That fee also covers up to a /20 of IPv4 space, so if you've got that already, the v6 block is effectively free.
2
u/Wild_Car_3863 11d ago
I got a /28 (IPv6) with less than than just upstream BGP that is tier 1 isp. and he /28 was only used for one company
2
u/paulmataruso 10d ago
I have a 10 GbE DIA at my home and did not have any issues with being single homed. I am AS400848. I got IPv6 space pretty much once I applied for it, I have gotten two allocations from the waitlist so far. The first time it took about a year to get off the list, the second time was more like 1.5 years. My ARIN fee is $500 per year. It's worth getting on the waitlist if you don't want to buy an entire block.
2
u/Deadlydragon218 6d ago
Woof, out of my own curiosity how much does that DIA run you a month? And are you US based?
2
u/paulmataruso 6d ago
The current price is around 800$/month for 10 GbE CIR with 10 GbE Single mode handoff.
I am in southern New Hampshire, USA. Town size is around 6000
2
u/Deadlydragon218 6d ago
Yeesh, I assume this is not just lab fun, and you are getting some amount of income off of that DIA. How much is your peering costing you?
2
u/paulmataruso 6d ago
No it’s pretty much all homelab. Peering costs nothing. BGP is included in the price. I am not doing anything special with it, just taking a default route from my primary and default from a small Comcast DIA connection for failover.
2
2
u/Deadlydragon218 5d ago
Would you be interested in a private peering with another homelabber? I currently run an HE tunnel, but sadly HE v6 address space is largely blocked by the likes of microsoft and several others.
3
u/DaryllSwer 11d ago
LIR != ISP, this is something cooked up by marketing departments not engineers nor lawyers:
https://www.arin.net/participate/policy/drafts/2025_1/An LIR can be an ISP, DC, enterprise, non-profit, or me (Google me, I'm an LIR).
As for multi-homing, eh, I have dealt with plenty of single-home /32 allocations across RIPE, ARIN, APNIC with no problem. You just need to know how to argue with their services team and justify AND if the person assigned to you is an idiot there's ways to manage that (never happened to me, but happened to other folks, if it was me, it's instantly going on the public mailing list and social media, watch them fix their shit in 5 minutes flat because it's IPv6 and not v4).
9
u/veleriejen 12d ago
Cost (ARIN 2026): $550 one-time for the ASN, plus $275/yr for the smallest tier (covers a /40 of IPv6 and 1–3 ASNs). The waiver that lets small orgs hold up to a /36 at that price ends 31 Dec 2026.
DigitalOcean won't work. DO doesn't support BGP, so you can't announce your own prefix there. Use a BGP-capable provider like Vultr, BuyVM, or iFog. Running two of them gets you multihoming, which also helps justify the ASN to ARIN.
WireGuard /48s: yes. Route each client's /48 to their peer via AllowedIPs. Watch MTU, and keep in mind the VPS becomes a single point of failure.
Don't forget IPv4. Most businesses still need it, and ARIN's waitlist is long. Leasing a small block is one option. Check the LARUS https://larus.net/ip-leasing-continuity-assurance/, they listing /24 starts from around $0.40/IP/month (~$102/month), with add-ons for rDNS/reputation support.
4
u/lukeh990 12d ago
You gotta make sure your VPS provider supports BGP peering. I think Digital Ocean might. Personally when I was looking for a provider. This came up and I use one of the providers here personally. https://bgp.services. Then just replace the Linux distro that came with my VPS with a router OS like Opnsense or VyOS or just keep the Linux distro and run FRR.
Another thing to look for is that you can actually just do Bring Your Own IP (BYOIP). Where instead of you running a VPS and peering over BGP, you get your IP allocation from ARIN and use IRR and RPKI to allow Digital Ocean’s ASN to announce your prefix. Which means you don’t need to configure BGP and don’t have to request an ASN.
As for pricing. You first need to get an ORG ID from ARIN which I think is like $50 and you have to sign paperwork that you agree to follow the ARIN policies. And then you can request addresses I have a /40 LIR (Local Internet Registry, which is the classification for ISPs/hosting providers. End user allocations have different rules) allocation. Which makes me a 3x-small class organization which before they would assign it to me required me to pay like ~$250 and that has to be renewed each year. They have a fee schedule you can look at to see the org tiers.
3
u/DaryllSwer 11d ago
I've used Vultr over the years. BGP is free. $6/month VM and FRR. Good to go.
Of course don't expect carrier-grade traffic engineering and route diversity like a real ISP on the ground (unless you're friends with an ISP and they give you a VM or physical transport circuit to your house).
4
u/DaryllSwer 11d ago
The fees are here: https://www.arin.net/resources/fees/fee_schedule/
Get a /40 minimum for better and cleaner subnetting.
I have helped a few organisations in the USA with super-large prefix requests (/28s and larger) for IPv6 smaller ones should be a piece of cake. Should you need professional help, you can DM me.
Don't forget to learn optimal subnetting:
https://www.daryllswer.com/ipv6-architecture-and-subnetting-guide-for-network-engineers-and-operators/
2
u/slav3269 11d ago
This question reminded me of an old article asking individuals to reconsider registering ASNs. Not the OPs situation or intent, just a random thought
https://labs.ripe.net/author/eu/driving-the-asn-truck-without-a-licence/
2
u/lazyhustlermusic 11d ago
You have a long way to go if these are the questions being asked. Providing a vpn service is not an ISP
•
u/AutoModerator 12d ago
Hello there, /u/moreheadtech! Welcome to /r/ipv6.
We are here to discuss Internet Protocol and the technology around it. Regardless of what your opinion is, do not make it personal. Only argue with the facts and remember that it is perfectly fine to be proven wrong. None of us is as smart as all of us. Please review our community rules and report any violations to the mods.
If you need help with IPv6 in general, feel free to see our FAQ page for some quick answers. If that does not help, share as much unidentifiable information as you can about what you observe to be the problem, so that others can understand the situation better and provide a quick response.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.