August 17, 2026

PeeringDB hygiene for people who actually peer

PeeringDB is a form. The useful version is a form someone updated after the last turn-up. The dangerous version is a form that still lists an IX you left, a facility that flooded, or a peering policy that has not been true since the last CFO.

I look up the ASN on IX and PeeringDB and I treat every row as a claim. Then I check the ASN explorer and the peer map. If the database says they are at DE-CIX and the table never shows them, I believe the table. The canonical notebook is still peeringdb.com.

PeeringDB fields I actually keep honest

AS number. Looking-glass URL — if you have one, put it, and make sure it works. Policy (open / selective / closed) that matches what you will say on the phone. Facilities you can still badge into. IX ports that are up. A noc@ mailbox that a human reads. If you cannot keep those six true, delete the stale ones. Empty is better than fiction.

A stale facility on your PeeringDB page is how you get a 3 a.m. meet-me that nobody can walk to.

How I read someone else’s page

Last updated date first. If it is two years old, I assume only the ASN is true. I still use it as a hint for which metro to ask about. I do not use it as a circuit order. Cross-check with the glass before you sell a story to your own peering committee.

Hygiene is not marketing. It is how you stop wasting truck rolls. Update the page the same week you update the port.