AS14298 — EPA-NET

AS14298 announces 4 IPv4 prefixes covering 262,400 addresses and 1 IPv6 prefixes.

About this network

A quarter of a million addresses in four blocks, most of which announce that nobody is home.

What it's used for

• A federal agency's network. 262,400 addresses across four IPv4 prefixes plus one IPv6 prefix, with one observed BGP neighbour.

Notable

• The four blocks are 204.46.0.0/15, 134.67.0.0/16, 161.80.0.0/16 and 192.58.247.0/24.
• Their netnames are EPA-NET2, EPA-NET, EPANESC and EPA-RTP-NCC; all four register to Environmental Protection Agency.
• Twelve addresses were queried for reverse DNS and eight returned a name.
• All eight returned the same name: unassigned.epa.gov.

Interesting

• A wildcard record reading unassigned is a network telling anyone who asks which of its addresses are empty. Most operators publish nothing for unused space, which leaves a scanner to guess. This one answers the question directly, across three separate blocks.
• Four prefixes for 262,400 addresses is the opposite of every ISP in this range. The space was allocated in large contiguous pieces and has never been broken up, because an agency network has no acquisitions to absorb and no customers to hand pieces to.
• One neighbour means one way in and out. For a network of this size that is a considered choice: everything transits a single connection, which is far easier to watch than several.
• EPA-RTP-NCC is the only netname carrying a site code rather than just the organisation, and it labels the smallest block by a wide margin.

This description is AI-generated, best-effort context — not authoritative, and provided without any guarantee of accuracy.

Announced prefixes

• 134.67.0.0/16
• 161.80.0.0/16
• 192.58.247.0/24
• 204.46.0.0/15
• 2620:117:5000::/36

Upstream networks

• AS13979 AT&T Enterprises, LLC

Adjacent networks

• AS13979 AT&T Enterprises, LLC

Routing security

• RPKI: 5 valid, 0 invalid and 0 not-found announcements; 5 ROAs.
• ASPA: none published.
• IRR: 100% of announcements registered; 5 route objects.