Floydy... lemme try explain the basics of the system to you.
There is a European registrar responsible for all IP addresses that have been allocated to Europe. This registrar company is called
RIPE.
Say I owned ChrisNet Ltd™, which is a fictitious ISP, and I wanted a block of IP addresses to use.
I would have to register my details with RIPE. I am allocated what's called an AS Number (explained above) by RIPE, and this is my unique identifier within the RIPE system.
So in RIPE's database, I am not known as ChrisNet, I am actually known as (e.g.) AS12345.
I can also put in an AS-Name which is simply a description for any human beings reading the RIPE database who might not know which company AS12345 refers to. This AS Name is generally a shortened version of the proper ISP name e.g. it might be CHRIS-NET or CHRISNET-AS rather than "ChrisNet Ltd™"
So to recap, I am called ChrisNet Ltd™, my AS number is 12345 and my AS is CHRISNET-AS
About my IP address allocation.. RIPE allocate me some IP addresses and assign them to the AS number 12345 (my ISP).
Now all this data is available publically, so from an IP address, the system we're developing can send a query to RIPE which will give me back the AS number (12345).
From the AS number I can look up the AS Name (CHRISNET-AS).
From this AS name, kitz has (is building up!) her own database that matches AS names to 'real' ISP names, which is displayed to you on the screen.
So in Kitz's table, there may be entries such as this:
BEUNLIMITED | Be
ZEN-AS | Zen
CHRISNET-AS | ChrisNet Ltd™
etc.
So step by step, we have to look up each bit in turn, and each time we get a piece of different information that helps us piece together actually which ISP the IP address belongs to!
Unfortunately, the data isn't quite as 'clean' as you'd like it to be, and over the years ISPs have used loads of different and obscure AS names, which don't match the name of the ISP at all! So it's a bit of a nightmare.
Hope that helps