Product documentation
What the Infrastructure Snapshot contains
One operator, $19, yours to re-open forever. This page lists every field you receive, what each one means, and what we deliberately do not claim. Read it before you buy, not after.
Want to see it before you buy? View sample (fictional company, for demonstration only)
The deliverable
One operator, one document
The Snapshot answers a single question: is this operator running real infrastructure, independently, and at what density? The free profile shows what the registries say, which is how much address space a company holds. It cannot tell you whether anything is running on it, whose infrastructure it resolves to, or how many separate tenants sit behind it. That is the second question, and it is what you are buying.
It is delivered as a document on the operator's profile page the moment you buy it, and stored in your account library. There is no queue, no email, and no waiting.
Always present
Fields every Snapshot contains
The $19 is priced against this block alone. Every operator that qualifies returns all of it.
Observed PTRs
How many addresses across the operator's space answered a reverse-DNS lookup with a name.
A count, for example 224,864.
PTR coverage
What share of their announced address space resolves at all. Low coverage on a large allocation means most of it is not answering.
A percentage, for example 6.78%.
Activity
Whether the space reads as active, sparse or dark, based on how much of it responds.
One of: active, sparse, dark.
Hostname clusters
Distinct naming groups within the space. A high cluster count alongside a high PTR count suggests many separate tenants rather than one operation.
A count, for example 12,420.
Tenant density
Carved sub-blocks per announced prefix. Higher numbers mean the space is more finely subdivided, which is what sub-allocation to customers looks like.
A ratio.
Carving count
How many more-specific sub-blocks sit inside the operator's announced space.
A count.
Prefix rows and announced prefix rows
How many of their blocks we hold observations for, and how many of those are actually announced to the internet.
Two counts.
Sample hostnames
Real hostnames observed in their space, deduplicated by parent domain and capped at twelve. Twelve sequential names off one host would teach you nothing, so we show distinct parents instead.
A list of hostnames.
Sample parents and share of sample
The parent domains those hostnames belong to, and what proportion of the sample each one accounts for. This is the field that answers whose infrastructure the space actually resolves to.
Parent domain plus a share, for example acedatacenter.com at 100% of sample.
Observed at
When this evidence was last measured, so you can judge how current it is.
A date.
Conditional
Fields included only where observed
These appear when a real value exists for that operator and are never promised in advance. A Snapshot with none of them is still complete.
Inferred type
What the naming pattern suggests the network is: transit carrier, eyeball ISP, CDN or cloud, hosting, or mixed.
Infrastructure source
Where the operator's capacity appears to come from, when their own material says so.
Customer signal
How strongly the naming suggests end customers sit behind the space.
IP provenance signal
Where the address space itself appears to originate.
Infrastructure class
Own datacenter, leased colocation, cloud reseller, or mixed. Present for very few operators. Read it as a hint, never as a classification.
Reseller tell
A statement on the operator's own site indicating they resell somebody else's capacity.
What “Not observed” means
It means we did not measure it. It does not mean the operator lacks it, and it is not a negative finding about them. We show the field either way so you can see the shape of what we hold, rather than quietly dropping it and leaving you to wonder whether it was ever included.
Worked example
Two operators at similar scale, opposite findings
| Field | Operator A | Operator B |
|---|---|---|
| Observed PTRs | 14,858 | 11,261 |
| Hostname clusters | 82 | 1,306 |
| Sample parents | one parent, 100% of sample | many parents, largest 33% |
| What you might conclude | The address space resolves entirely to a third party. | Genuine multi-tenant hosting with diverse customers. |
Neither conclusion is asserted by us. Both are visible in the evidence returned. That is the difference between a snapshot and a score.
Qualification
Not every operator can be bought
The Snapshot is offered only where we hold reverse-DNS evidence for the operator. Where we do not, the option does not appear on their profile at all, and the purchase is refused before any charge is made. Roughly two thirds of the directory qualifies.
We would rather show you nothing than sell you an empty result. If you can see the button, the evidence exists.
Delivery
How you receive it and keep it
Immediate
The Snapshot renders on the operator's profile the moment you buy it. Nothing is queued or emailed.
Stored
It is saved to your account library, listed by operator, with the date you bought it.
Re-opens free
Opening one you already own never charges you again, for as long as your account is open.
New accounts include their first Snapshot, so you can see the depth before you spend anything.
Limitations
What this does not tell you
- It measures reverse DNS, not contracts. It tells you what an operator's address space looks like from the outside. It does not tell you who owns the building, who they buy from, or what they will quote you.
- Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. An operator who chooses not to publish reverse DNS will look sparse here. That is a real finding about visibility, not proof that nothing is running.
- The sample is a sample. Sample hostnames and parents are drawn from observed names, capped and deduplicated. They characterise the space; they do not enumerate it.
- Idle address space is matched on company name only. It is labelled indicative and is not a verified ownership link.
- Evidence has a date. Every Snapshot carries the date it was observed. Infrastructure changes; the date is there so you can judge for yourself.
Excluded
What is deliberately not in it
Registry counts you already see free
ASNs, prefix count and IPv4 count are on the free profile. Selling those back to you is what was wrong with the previous version of this product.
Anything derived from PeeringDB
Exchange presence, peering policy and the facility footprint sit behind a licensing firewall and are not part of a paid product.
Anything derived from CAIDA
Carrier status, cone size and tier come from a research dataset licensed for reports only, so they are never sold.
Any score, rating or ranking
There is no operator score and no recommendation. A score would hide the evidence behind our opinion. This is a settled rule, not a stylistic preference.
Your first Infrastructure Snapshot is included.
Browse the directory free, then buy the evidence behind the operators worth real outreach.