What NLNOG does

NLNOG (Netherlands Network Operator Group) is a Dutch non-profit foundation (Stichting NLNOG), registered at the Chamber of Commerce in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that facilitates the Dutch and Global Internet Engineering Community. Founded in 2002 as a mailing list, the foundation organizes free community events such as the annual NLNOG Day conference and a New Years Drink, and operates free, openly accessible network engineering tools. Its community comprises roughly 400 mailing list participants drawn primarily from the Dutch Internet community, with engagement channels including IRC, Discord, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Mastodon.

NLNOG's core products are a suite of open network engineering tools operated for the benefit of the Internet community. The NLNOG RING is a globally distributed server network used for remote network debugging and testing across geographic vantage points. The NLNOG Looking Glass is positioned as one of the largest BGP Looking Glasses available, enabling network engineers to query BGP routing data from multiple perspectives. IRR Explorer provides debugging capabilities for Internet Routing Registry data. The NLNOG BGP Filter Guide is a community-maintained documentation resource providing how-to guidance and multi-vendor configuration recipes for BGP filtering, including RPKI, bogon ASN/prefix filtering, IXP peering LAN filtering, graceful shutdown, and community management across vendors such as BIRD, OpenBGPD, FRR, VyOS, Junos, IOS XR, Arista EOS, Nokia SR OS, MikroTik, Huawei VRP, and FortiOS.

NLNOG is funded through corporate sponsorship and individual donations rather than product or service revenue. The organization discloses no pricing, no public API, and operates with approximately six people on staff. Its sponsor base spans 29+ organizations across the Dutch and European Internet ecosystem, including carriers (KPN, NTT DATA, RETN), internet exchanges (AMS-IX, NL-IX, LONAP, SpeedIX), equipment vendors (Arista, Nokia), security firms (Corero, Recorded Future), and hosting providers (Leaseweb, Duocast, i3D.net, BIT). RIPE NCC is a core mutual partner. The foundation has no parent company, no subsidiaries, no funding rounds, and no disclosed financial figures; its mission is explicitly community-oriented rather than investor-return-oriented.

Name

NLNOG

Legal name

Stichting NLNOG

Website

https://nlnog.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2002

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NLNOG is a Dutch non-profit foundation that organizes free community events and operates open network engineering tools (RING, Looking Glass, IRR Explorer, BGP Filter Guide) for the global Internet engineering community, funded by corporate sponsorships and individual donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Amsterdam

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Operations, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Sponsorship and Donations: As a non-profit foundation (Stichting NLNOG), NLNOG is funded by companies and individuals through sponsorships and donations. Funding is generously provided by both companies and individuals.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

NLNOG (Stichting NLNOG) is a Dutch non-profit foundation that operates a portfolio of free, community-maintained network engineering tools — including NLNOG RING (a globally distributed network debugging infrastructure), NLNOG Looking Glass (BGP routing query tool), IRR Explorer, and the BGP Filter Guide — and organizes free community events such as NLNOG Day for network and systems engineers.

Product overview

NLNOG is a non-profit foundation that provides a portfolio of network engineering tools and organizes community events for the Dutch and Global Internet Engineering Community. The core offerings include the NLNOG RING (a global network debugging infrastructure), NLNOG Looking Glass (BGP routing query tool), IRR Explorer (IRR debugging tool), and the NLNOG BGP Filter Guide (documentation resource). These tools are freely available to network operators and are supported by a community of volunteers and sponsors from the internet industry.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NLNOG RING: A network for debugging on a global scale
• NLNOG Looking Glass
• IRR Explorer
• NLNOG BGP Filter Guide
• NLNOG Day

Products and services

• NLNOG RING

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• RIPE NCCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRIPE NCC is a mutual partner and sponsor of NLNOG. As a Regional Internet Registry serving the Europe, Middle East, and parts of Central Asia region, RIPE NCC collaborates with NLNOG to advance Internet infrastructure and the network engineering community. It appears on the NLNOG sponsors page and is involved in joint community activities.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• UKNOF (UK Network Operators' Forum): UK volunteer-run Network Operator Group operating on a similar model: free community events, mailing lists, and operator-focused knowledge sharing. Comparable in scale and governance style to NLNOG.
• FRNOG (French Network Operators' Group): French NOG with similar community-led mission of organizing events and supporting network engineering collaboration. Comparable scope and operating approach to NLNOG.
• NZNOG (New Zealand Network Operators' Group): New Zealand NOG operating on a similar small-country volunteer-run model with annual conferences and operator community focus. Directly comparable in mission and scale.
• DENOG (German Network Operators' Group): German NOG that organizes community events and facilitates knowledge exchange among network operators in Germany. Directly comparable mission, structure, and volunteer-run model.
• AUSNOG (Australian Network Operators' Group): Australian NOG with similar mission of organizing operator-focused events and community exchange. Directly comparable in operating model though serving the Australia/Pacific region.
• SANOG (South Asian Network Operators' Group): Regional NOG covering South Asia with similar events, mailing lists, and operator community focus. Directly comparable in mission though serving a different geographic region.
• NOROG (Norwegian Network Operators' Group): Norwegian NOG with a comparable small-country focus on organizing operator events and facilitating technical exchange. Closely matched in scale and community-led operating model.

Broad incumbents

• RIPE NCC: Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. Operates RIPE RIS (a BGP data collection system functionally similar to NLNOG's Looking Glass) and is also a core strategic partner and sponsor of NLNOG.
• NANOG (North American Network Operators' Group): Largest and most professionalized NOG in the world, with paid conferences, a substantial staff, and broader industry programming. Operates in the same space as NLNOG but at materially greater scale and with more commercial-grade event production.

Others

• Internet Society: Global non-profit focused on Internet standards, policy, and education. Operates in an adjacent ecosystem role to NLNOG — supporting Internet infrastructure and the operator community — though at a much larger global scale and with a broader mandate.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@NLNOG
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nlnog-foundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NLNOG