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AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa. It is responsible for allocating and managing Internet number resources — IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) — across the African region. If you need IP addresses or an ASN for a network in Africa, AFRINIC is the registry you deal with; if you want a voice in how those resources are governed, AFRINIC is also where the policy process happens.

What AFRINIC manages

AFRINIC's core function is registry services: distributing and recording the Internet number resources that networks need to operate and interconnect.

Alongside allocation, AFRINIC maintains the registry records that map these resources to their holders — the underlying data that keeps routing and addressing coherent across the region.

Who can become a member and what members get

AFRINIC operates a membership model. Resource members hold number resources and participate in the organisation's governance, including policy discussions. The site frames this directly: "every resource member has a seat at the table."

Membership connects you to:

• Registry services — obtaining and managing IPv4, IPv6, and ASN resources.
• Policy participation — shaping how Internet resources are managed in Africa.
• Learning and community — training, webinars, and events.

A dedicated New Membership Registration Portal is available for signing up, and existing members use it to access and manage their number resources.

How policy gets made — and how you participate

AFRINIC's Policy Development Process (PDP) is the mechanism through which the community decides how Internet resources are managed. Rather than policies being set unilaterally by the registry, they emerge from discussion and consensus among members and stakeholders.

The practical entry points are:

• Policy Development Process — learn the formal steps and how proposals move forward.
• Resource Policy Discussions — take part in the debates that shape outcomes.
• Events and meetings — participate in the decisions that shape Africa's Internet policy landscape.

A first-hand account on AFRINIC's blog illustrates what this looks like in practice: Rexa Mphuwa describes the journey "from feeling like an outsider to contributing to Internet policy discussions at AFRINIC-37 in Nairobi," making the point that every resource member has a seat at the table. The takeaway for a newcomer is that participation is open, but it starts with showing up — at a meeting, in a discussion, or through the survey channels.

Practical resources you can use

AFRINIC bundles its services into a few concrete entry points:

• Member Registration Portal — access membership and resource management.
• IPv6 Resources — manage your number resources, including IPv6.
• DNS Anycast Programme — access the name system anycast programme.
• Webinar Series — expert-led online training and capacity-building sessions.
• Upcoming Events & Meetings — participate in policy and community decisions.

Ways to get involved

Beyond holding resources, there are several low-commitment ways to engage:

• Take the members and stakeholders survey — the site notes it "takes only a few minutes" and asks what is working well, where to improve, and future priorities.
• Join the webinar series — build skills through online training.
• Attend events and meetings — including regional meetings such as AFRINIC 38.
• Follow news and blog posts — announcements, governance updates, and community stories.

Upcoming: AFRINIC 38

AFRINIC 38 is scheduled for 18 November 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa, with registration opening soon. Meetings like this are where policy discussions, community networking, and organisational updates come together — a practical first step if you want to move from observer to participant.

Governance note

AFRINIC's leadership is in transition. Mike Silber was appointed CEO Designate, appointed by the AFRINIC Board with the consent of the Receiver following a recruitment process led by the CEO Search Committee. He assumes office on 1 January 2027. The appointment was issued by the AFRINIC Board of Directors and the Receiver — a detail worth noting, since it reflects the organisation's current governance circumstances. Recent news also includes a Draft RIR Governance Document with a rationale report, and the constitution of the AFRINIC Appeal Committee.

The short version

AFRINIC is Africa's Internet registry: it allocates IPv4, IPv6, and ASNs, maintains the records behind them, and runs the community-driven policy process that governs how those resources are managed. You engage with it either as a resource member needing number resources, or as a community participant shaping policy — and the entry points for both are the membership portal, the policy discussions, and the events and webinars it hosts.

An Autonomous System Number (ASN) is a globally unique number assigned to a network that operates under a single, clearly defined routing policy and exchanges routing information with other networks using BGP. You need one when your network must present a consistent identity to the global routing table — most commonly for multi-homing, peering, or running your own address space. You request it from the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) that covers your region; for Africa, that is AFRINIC, which is responsible for the allocation and management of IPv4, IPv6, and ASNs across the continent.

ASN vs. IP address: what each one does

An IP address identifies an interface or a host. An ASN identifies a network — the whole routing domain behind it. The two work together but answer different questions:

A useful way to think about it: the IP prefix tells the world where your addresses are, and the ASN tells the world who is announcing them. When you announce a prefix to a transit provider or an internet exchange, the route carries both your prefix and your origin ASN.

When does a network actually need its own ASN?

Not every organisation needs one. You generally do not need an ASN if you simply connect to a single upstream provider and use addresses that provider assigns to you — your provider's ASN covers your traffic.

You do need your own ASN when:

• You multi-home. You connect to two or more upstream providers or exchanges and want traffic to fail over between them. Without your own ASN, you cannot announce a consistent prefix from multiple paths.
• You peer. You want to exchange traffic directly with other networks at an internet exchange point, which requires a BGP session identified by your ASN.
• You run your own address space. If you hold provider-independent addresses and want to announce them yourself, you need an ASN as the origin.
• You want a stable routing identity. Your ASN stays with you if you change transit providers, so your routing presence does not depend on any single carrier.

How the request process works

The exact forms and portal differ by registry, but the logic is the same everywhere. The general sequence is:

1. Confirm you are in the right region. AFRINIC serves the African region. If your network is elsewhere, you apply to the RIR covering that area instead.
2. Check eligibility. Registries expect you to be an organisation operating a network, not an individual reselling connectivity. You will typically need to show that you are multi-homed or have a concrete plan to become multi-homed.
3. Prepare justification. You explain why you need the ASN: your upstream providers, your peering plans, and the routing policy you intend to run. This is the part most first-time applicants underestimate.
4. Submit the request through the registry's member or resource request process, along with the supporting documentation the registry asks for.
5. Receive the assignment and register it. Once assigned, the ASN is recorded in the registry's public database, and you use it to configure BGP with your neighbours.

AFRINIC's own service pages group this under registry services, alongside IPv6 resource management and the member registration portal, so the ASN request sits within the same membership and resource-management workflow as addresses.

After you get it: what actually matters

Getting the number is the easy part. The ongoing work is what determines whether it is useful:

• Keep your registration data current. Your ASN record, contacts, and associated address objects should reflect reality. Stale records cause failed peering requests and confusion in routing databases.
• Appear in routing databases. Networks commonly list their ASN, prefixes, and peering details in PeeringDB so that potential peers can find them. PeeringDB's own update notes describe ongoing work such as improved ASN comparison and expanded API query export, which reflects how central ASN records are to peering decisions.
• Understand transfer and policy rules. ASNs can be transferred under registry policy, but the conditions are set by the RIR and can change through the policy development process. If you are acquiring or disposing of one, check the current policy rather than assuming.
• Plan for the routing policy you declared. If you told the registry you would multi-home, you should actually do it. Registries can review whether assignments are being used as justified.

Common pitfalls

• Applying without a real multi-homing plan. "I might want it later" is usually not sufficient justification.
• Confusing an ASN with an IP allocation. They are separate resources with separate requests and separate justification.
• Forgetting the public database. Your ASN is visible to the global routing community; inaccurate entries create operational problems for you and your peers.
• Assuming regional rules are identical. Each RIR has its own policies and procedures. AFRINIC's apply to Africa; the same concept elsewhere is handled by a different registry with different requirements.

If you are in the AFRINIC region and want to move forward, the practical starting point is AFRINIC's registry services and membership pages, where the resource request process and the member registration portal are documented.

IPv6 is the 128-bit successor to IPv4, designed because IPv4's roughly 4.3 billion addresses ran out. It applies to anyone who needs to address devices on the internet — network operators, ISPs, enterprises, and members of a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) like AFRINIC, which allocates and manages IPv4, IPv6, and ASNs across Africa. If you are planning new network growth, requesting address space, or simply trying to understand why a device shows a long hexadecimal address, IPv6 is the relevant protocol.

Why IPv6 Exists

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses. That yields about 4.3 billion unique addresses — a number that seemed vast in the 1980s but was exhausted as internet use spread to phones, servers, sensors, and cloud infrastructure. Workarounds such as NAT (Network Address Translation) let many devices share one public IPv4 address, but they add complexity and break some end-to-end connectivity.

IPv6 solves the core problem by widening the address field to 128 bits. The result is an address space large enough that running out is not a practical concern for the foreseeable future.

IPv4 vs IPv6 at a Practical Level

The notation difference matters in daily work. An IPv6 address is written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, and consecutive zero groups can be compressed with ::. For example, 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 is normally written 2001:db8::1.

Key Operational Differences

• NAT reduction. Because IPv6 provides so many addresses, networks can give devices globally routable addresses without translation. This simplifies some architectures but changes how you think about firewalling and exposure.
• Autoconfiguration. IPv6 hosts can configure themselves using stateless address autoconfiguration, reducing dependence on a DHCP server for basic connectivity.
• Dual-stack coexistence. Most networks run IPv4 and IPv6 together rather than switching overnight. A device or service may be reachable over either protocol.
• Different security and management habits. Firewall rules, monitoring, and access controls written for IPv4 do not automatically carry over; they need to be reviewed for IPv6.

Who Allocates and Manages IPv6

IPv6 addresses are distributed through the same hierarchy as IPv4:

1. IANA manages the global pool.
2. Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) allocate blocks to organizations in their region. AFRINIC is the RIR for Africa and is responsible for the allocation and management of Internet numbers — IPv4, IPv6, and ASNs — in that region.
3. ISPs and larger members sub-allocate to their customers.
4. End users and enterprises receive addresses through their provider or, where eligible, directly as members.

AFRINIC's services bring registry services, policy participation, learning, and community together in one place, and it provides a dedicated IPv6 resources area for managing number resources. Members and stakeholders can also take part in the Policy Development Process, which shapes how Internet resources are managed in the region.

Where to Get IPv6 Resources or Training

If you are in the AFRINIC service region, the practical entry points are:

• IPv6 Resources — manage your number resources through AFRINIC.
• New Membership Registration Portal — access the member registration portal if you are applying for resources.
• Policy Development Process — learn how policy is proposed and decided, and participate.
• Webinar Series — expert-led online training and capacity-building sessions.
• Upcoming Events & Meetings — including regional meetings such as AFRINIC 38, scheduled for Cape Town, South Africa on 18 November 2026, with registration opening soon.

For readers outside Africa, the equivalent starting point is your own regional registry's IPv6 resource pages and training programs.

How to Tell If IPv6 Applies to You

IPv6 is likely relevant if any of the following is true:

• You are requesting or managing address space and your registry offers IPv6 blocks.
• You are growing a network and want to avoid IPv4 scarcity or heavy NAT.
• You are configuring devices, firewalls, or monitoring and need to support both protocols.
• You are a member or stakeholder who wants a voice in how Internet resources are managed.

If you only need to understand a single address you have seen, the notation and size differences above are usually enough. If you need to obtain or manage resources, go through your RIR or ISP rather than assuming addresses are freely available — allocation follows registry processes and membership conditions.

Internet radio is audio streamed over the internet rather than broadcast over AM/FM airwaves or satellite. You can listen on a web player, a mobile app, a smart speaker, or a connected car system, and free ad-supported services such as iHeart let you start with live stations, artist stations, and playlists without paying. The trade-offs are the usual ones for streaming: you need a stable connection, some stations are limited by region, and certain features may prompt you to sign in or subscribe.

How internet radio differs from AM/FM and satellite

The practical difference is control. AM/FM and satellite give you a fixed lineup tuned by a broadcaster. Internet radio can combine live, scheduled stations with on-demand playback and stations built around a specific artist or song.

Ways to listen

• Web player: open the service in a browser and press play. Good for desktop listening and quick checks.
• Mobile app: install the app for background playback, lock-screen controls, and easier station switching.
• Smart speakers: link your account or service and use voice commands to start a station.
• Car systems: use Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, or a built-in app to stream while driving.

How free ad-supported services like iHeart work

iHeart describes its offering as free access to thousands of live radio stations, plus the ability to create your own artist stations and playlists, along with podcasts, music, and trending news. In practice, that means:

• Live radio stations you can tune into as they broadcast.
• Artist stations generated around a performer you choose.
• Playlists you assemble or follow.
• Podcasts and talk content alongside music.

The service is ad-supported at the free level. iHeart's site references a subscription option, so treat "free" as the default entry point rather than a guarantee that every feature is free. If a specific feature matters to you, check whether it sits behind a subscription before relying on it.

Steps to find a station and start playback

1. Open the service. Use the website or install the app.
2. Choose how to browse. Look for categories such as genre, city/location, or artist.
3. Pick a station. Select a live station, an artist station, or a playlist.
4. Press play. Playback should begin within a few seconds on a stable connection.
5. Adjust if needed. If audio doesn't start, try another station to confirm whether the problem is the stream or your setup.
6. Save what you like. Favorites or a library make it faster to return to a station later.

Expected result: audio plays continuously, and you can switch stations without reloading the whole app.

Common playback problems and quick fixes

• Buffering or stuttering: check your connection speed, move closer to the router, or switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data (or the reverse).
• Region blocks: some streams are only licensed for certain locations. If a station won't play, try a different one or a locally available station.
• Login prompts: some features may ask you to sign in. If you only want free listening, try the live station or artist station path first.
• No sound but the player shows playing: check device volume, output device selection, and whether another app has taken over the audio session.
• App works, browser doesn't (or vice versa): switch to the other method to isolate whether the issue is the app, the browser, or the stream itself.

What to decide before you start

If you want background music with no commitment, start with a free ad-supported service and a live or artist station. If you need offline listening, ad-free playback, or specific premium features, check the subscription terms first. If you mainly listen in the car, confirm the service works with your car system before making it your default.

A community section on a digital art and wallpaper site is the part of the platform where popularity is decided by members rather than by editors alone. On Skinbase, that takes the form of named rails — Rising Now, Trending This Week, Fresh Uploads, Community Favorites, and Hall of Fame — each measuring a different signal over a different time window. If you want to know which work other members are actually rewarding right now, the community rails answer that; if you want a curated or chronological view, the same site offers other entry points.

How community signals work on Skinbase

Skinbase describes itself as a home for "digital art, wallpapers, skins, and photography from a global creator community," and the homepage is organized around that idea. The rails are not interchangeable — each one tracks a distinct input:

The key mechanic is the medal. Skinbase's own description of Community Favorites says it "highlights the strongest 30-day medal signal," and each entry shows a count such as "30d medals: 10" or "30d medals: 5." That means medals are awarded by community members, accumulated per artwork, and then ranked over a rolling 30-day period. A piece with 10 medals in 30 days outranks one with 5, regardless of total views.

This is why the same artwork can appear in several rails at once. In the current homepage data, "The Nautilus of Atlantis" by Gregor Klevže appears in Rising Now, Trending This Week, and Fresh Uploads — it is both new and drawing attention. "My Art" by bagelriver leads Community Favorites with 10 medals while also sitting in Rising Now and Trending This Week. Overlap is a signal, not a glitch.

Community picks vs. editorial or algorithmic feeds

The distinction matters when you are deciding where to look:

• Community-driven rails (Community Favorites, Hall of Fame) reflect accumulated member medals. They reward work that other creators and visitors chose to recognize.
• Momentum rails (Rising Now, Trending This Week) blend recency with engagement — newer work can surface faster than in an all-time list.
• Chronological rails (Fresh Uploads) apply no popularity filter at all. This is the only place where a brand-new upload with zero medals can appear alongside established names.

If you want to find underrated work before it accumulates medals, Fresh Uploads is the right entry point. If you want social proof, Community Favorites is the most direct measure, because the medal count is displayed next to each item.

How to browse the community sections

1. Start on the homepage and scan the rail headings in order: Rising Now, Trending This Week, Fresh Uploads, Community Favorites, Hall of Fame.
2. Use the "See all →" link on any rail to expand it beyond the preview items.
3. Read the medal count on Community Favorites entries — it is the clearest numeric signal of community approval.
4. Cross-check an artwork across rails. Appearing in both Fresh Uploads and a momentum rail suggests it is new and being received well.
5. Open the artwork page to see the creator handle, which is shown under each title (for example, "Gregor Klevže / gregor" or "Paul R. Herold / mitsubishiman").

A practical example: if you are looking for a wallpaper and want something proven, open Community Favorites and pick from the top medal counts. If you want something nobody has seen yet, open Fresh Uploads and work down the list. Both are community surfaces, but they serve opposite goals.

How creators gain visibility

Visibility on Skinbase is cumulative and multi-path. A creator's work can enter the community's view through three separate routes:

• Recency — a new upload lands in Fresh Uploads immediately, with no threshold to clear.
• Momentum — if it collects medals quickly, it can move into Rising Now or Trending This Week.
• Durability — sustained medal accumulation over 30 days feeds Community Favorites, and exceptional long-term performance feeds the Hall of Fame.

The homepage data shows this is not theoretical. Gregor Klevže holds the majority of slots across Rising Now, Trending This Week, and Fresh Uploads, while Paul R. Herold and Hythem Khalifa also appear repeatedly. bagelriver's "My Art" tops Community Favorites with 10 medals. These are creators whose work is being surfaced by member activity, not by a single editorial decision.

One caveat worth noting: the medal counts shown are 30-day figures, so Community Favorites is a moving list. An artwork that leads today can drop off as its medals age out of the window, even if its all-time total keeps growing — which is what the Hall of Fame captures instead.

What the community section does not tell you

The community rails show popularity, not suitability. A high medal count does not indicate resolution, file format, license terms, or whether a wallpaper fits your screen. Those details live on the individual artwork page, not in the rail preview. Similarly, the presence of a "Pricing" link under the site's academy section means some parts of Skinbase may involve paid content, but the homepage evidence does not specify which features are free and which are not — treat that as something to check directly rather than assume.

If your goal is simply to understand the term: on a digital art and wallpaper site, "community" refers to the member-driven layer of discovery — the medals, favorites, and ranked rails that sit alongside chronological and editorial feeds, and that let visitors see what other people are choosing rather than only what the platform is promoting.