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I made a simple geolocation service

maxkostinevich.com

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Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#21

Post by mike_d »

grizzles wrote: post #13

How does MaxMind prevent someone from releasing an open source version of their database? If you are about to answer "Copyright", remember - you can't Copyright facts. This has been upheld in the Courts system many times.

Facts cannot be copyrighted, but a unique compilation of facts can be. This became settled law many decades ago with sports almanacs.

Furthermore, Maxmind adds non-factual entries to the database so they can identify it uniquely as their work. Map makers do something similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#22

Post by sudhirj »

Google App Engine had this quite a while ago (almost a decade, I think)and a very generous free tier. Also has approx lat-long, city, state and country.

https://blip.runway7.net https://github.com/runway7/blip

I lost track of the consumer apps I've used this on and still haven't received a $1+ bill.

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#23

Post by renewiltord »

grizzles wrote: post #13

How does MaxMind prevent someone from releasing an open source version of their database? If you are about to answer "Copyright", remember - you can't Copyright facts. This has been upheld in the Courts system many times.

You can just stick this in a license agreement, surely.

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#24

Post by Nextgrid »

speedgoose wrote: post #7

Well that's a bit more than 2 requests per second on average. Sure you may have some bursts once in a while, but nothing a 3€ VM can't manage IMHO.

I always find it funny when people brag about cost savings on cloud services while overlooking the insane premium they're paying by using the "cloud" to begin with.

It's kinda like a construction firm using a supercar to haul materials and then bragging about their efforts to make cosmetic repairs cost-effective... maybe you could just not use an overpriced car to begin with and then damage won't be an issue?

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#25

Post by waffl »

I had to tackle this problem as well for a small project and found that I could just send a GET request to https://www.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/trace and parse the response with a simple regex: /loc=(\w*)$/gm

The response time averages 10ms and is free, granted I'm not sure if there is a ToS or anything attached to this endpoint, I've only found non-conclusive discussion here https://community.cloudflare.com/t/what-are-the-terms-of-use...

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#26

Post by walrus01 »

since this article mentions maxmind, this reminded me of when geolocation by IP address goes horribly wrong, and non-technical persons interpret the results as something to be relied upon as factual:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/08/kansas-couple-su...

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/09/maxmind-m...

https://mashable.com/2016/08/11/ip-addresses-kansas/

ISP perspective here: Geolocation by granular /24 to /20 sized block of ipv4 space is often wildly inaccurate on a regional basis. It's entirely possible for the ARIN registration (used by maxmind) to be a street address in Seattle, but serving end user ISP customers a 4.5 hour drive away in a far eastern corner of WA state.

Re: I made a simple geolocation service

#30

Post by fs2 »

I've used the free MaxMinds database for a while but since the last year I've been using iplist.cc. It supports IPv4, IPv6, shows if an IP is tor, spam, which ASN and a lot more.

It's also free and fast but with services like these I always wonder how long they manage to stay free.

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