Hurricane Electric
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet service provider, Data center services |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Founder | Mike Leber |
| Headquarters | Fremont, California , United States |
| Products | Internet transit, network utilities, data center colocation and hosting solutions, IPv6 tunnel broker service, IPv6 certification program |
| Website | he |
Hurricane Electric is an international Internet service provider headquartered in Fremont, California. The company delivers Internet transit, network utilities, as well as data center colocation and hosting solutions at its San Jose and Fremont facilities. Established in 1994 by Mike Leber, Hurricane Electric manages one of the most extensive global IP backbones, excelling in both IPv4 and IPv6 network adjacencies.
As of , Hurricane Electric asserts ownership of the largest IPv6 network worldwide by announced prefixes and holds the fifth position globally for IPv4 prefixes, underscoring its prominent role and substantial market presence within the Internet infrastructure sector.
IPv6
Hurricane Electric runs the world’s largest transit networks for both IPv4 and IPv6, measured by the volume of peering interconnections with other networks. The majority of these connections consist of native IPv6 BGP sessions, which contribute to the company’s strong positioning in next-generation Internet protocols.
The firm offers a widely utilized IPv6 tunnel broker service that provides free IPv6 access through 6in4 transition techniques. Although free BGP peering over these tunnels was discontinued due to misuse concerns, standard tunnel services remain operational. Furthermore, Hurricane Electric administers an online IPv6 certification program aimed at advancing industry expertise and standards compliance; to date, over 21,000 participants from 164 countries have earned the highest certification tier.
By June 2024, the tunnel broker service had provisioned upwards of 52,700 tunnels across 174 nations, highlighting extensive global reach and adoption of its IPv6 offerings.
Peering
The company's global infrastructure connects to more than 310 key exchange points and maintains direct peering relationships with over 10,325 networks. Hurricane Electric supports upwards of 30+ Terabits per second in active public peering capacity alongside over 200 Terabits per second in private peering throughput.
Recognized as number one worldwide by the European Internet Exchange Association (Euro-IX) for Internet exchange connections, Hurricane Electric is present at over 170 Euro-IX member IXPs, illustrating its considerable influence and competitive strength in international network operations.
Cogent dispute
Since 2009, Hurricane Electric has been engaged in an ongoing peering disagreement with Cogent Communications. Cogent has declined to participate in settlement-free interconnection with Hurricane Electric, affecting cooperative network arrangements within the industry.
IncogNET dispute
In July 2023, Hurricane Electric applied BGP filtering measures to block traffic associated with the contentious forum Kiwi Farms. This decision led IncogNET to lodge a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's Office, highlighting complexities surrounding content moderation practices and governance challenges faced by ISPs.
External links
- Companies based in Fremont, California
- Data centers
- Internet service providers of the United States
- Internet service providers
- IPv6
- Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
- American companies established in 1994
- Technology companies established in 1994
- Companies of the United States by year of establishment