IPv4 decision library
Research public and private IPv4, leasing and purchase choices, address reputation, RIR requirements, routing, RPKI, LOAs, and day-to-day network responsibilities.
What this library covers
Market context, commercial choices, registry readiness, and operational controls—without treating external approval, reputation, or availability as guaranteed.
178 published guides
Choose by task
Use the library for context, then continue to the product or operating workflow that matches your responsibility.
Start with: How to find my IPv4Model block size, term, setup, and operating assumptions before requesting capacity.
Search current public listings and review the evidence and responsibilities attached to each path.
Understand authority, routing, records, acceptance, abuse response, and renewal ownership.
Use practical guidance for RIR records, routing, RPKI, LOAs, reputation, and support workflows.
From the library
New and updated articles are ordered by publication date. Open the guide that matches your current question.
Latest guide
If your organization holds unused or underused IPv4 address space, one of the most important questions is:How much are my IPv4 addresses worth in 2026?There is no single fixed market price for an IPv4 address.The achievable value of an IPv4 block depends on the specific resource being offered, inclu
Transferring IPv4 address space from one organization to another involves more than agreeing on a prefix and a price. A successful IPv4 transfer may require documentation showing who the parties are, who is authorized to act for them, which IPv4 resources are involved, whether the source is entitled
NAS stands for Network Attached Storage. It is a dedicated storage device that connects to a network and serves files to every authorised computer, server, or application on that network, instead of storing data on individual machines. Where a normal external drive belongs to one computer, a NAS bel
A botnet is a network of compromised computers or devices running malicious software that lets a single operator control them all remotely. Each infected machine is a “bot,” the person controlling them is the “bot herder,” and the channel through which commands are issued is
Network abuse is the use of IP address space to conduct harmful activity spam, phishing, malware distribution, brute-force attacks, scanning, or participating in attacks and abuse reports are the notifications sent to whoever is responsible for that space when it happens. Those reports arrive at the
Completing an IPv4 transfer does more than move address space from one organization to another. It changes the administrative relationship around the IPv4 block—and that can affect multiple records and services associated with the resource. After an IPv4 transfer, organizations may need to review or
A Letter of Authorization (LOA) is a formal document in which the registered holder of an IP address block authorizes another party to announce that address space from a specified Autonomous System Number. It is the written permission that connects a contractual right to use address space with the t
Most businesses should size IPv4 by starting at a /24 — the smallest block the global Internet will reliably route — and sizing up from there based on how many addresses their actual services consume, plus room for growth. A /24 provides 256 addresses; each step up roughly doubles that. The right si
A datacenter IP address originates from a commercial data center, cloud provider, or hosting company, while a residential IP address is assigned by an Internet service provider to a home or business subscriber. The difference is origin: one comes from infrastructure built to run servers, the other f
Two IPv4 blocks can have the same prefix size, similar market value, and equally willing buyers and sellers—yet require different transaction preparation. The reason is that an IPv4 transaction does not exist only at the commercial layer. The address block is also registered within a Regional Intern
A proxy reroutes traffic for a specific application through an intermediary server, while a VPN routes and encrypts all of a device’s traffic through a secure tunnel. The short version: a proxy changes the apparent source of some of your traffic; a VPN changes and protects the source of all of
CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) is a technique that lets an Internet service provider share a single public IPv4 address among many customers at once, instead of giving each customer their own. It adds a second layer of network address translation inside the provider’s network, so hundreds or thousa
