AS7091 VIANET-ASN

VIANET-ASN is the Silicon Valley network originally operated as via.net,

now registered to Next Level Connect of Palo Alto, California, a subsidiary

of NLX Communications. Router reverse names in the space still read

pa.via.net, a fossil of the earlier operator.

What it's used for

• Fiber internet service in the San Francisco Bay Area and, more recently, Southern California. Next Level Connect markets symmetrical multi-gigabit fiber to office buildings, multi-dwelling units, HOAs and neighbourhoods.
• Carries the legacy 209.81.0.0/18 block along with 199.4.218.0/24.

Notable

• Reverse DNS in 209.81.0.0/18 is a mix of provider infrastructure and named customer hosts (organisations and hosted services rather than numbered subscriber pools), which reads as a business and colocation-era ISP rather than a mass-market consumer network.
• The ASN registration dates from 1996; the organisation record was replaced in 2024 when Next Level Connect took the resources over. The number was not reissued, it changed hands with the network.

Interesting

• via.net was one of the many independent Bay Area ISPs of the 1990s. The AS number, the /18, and the router naming all survived the operator that created them.