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How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

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Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#41

Post by shortrounddev2 »

klaussilveira wrote: post #32
shortrounddev2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in adtech and this is how we do geolocation. There's also device geolocation but if the user doesn't consent to sharing their GPS data with us, we just use IP address for targeting. Common provider for this is Maxmind; they ship a database that you host locally and query

Since you are in adtech: do you buy MaxMind, or roll your own? Are there any providers for US-only data, and therefore, cheaper?

We licensed Maxmind's DB recently (it's like $300 a year or something). idk if there are US-only databases. Our customers are all in the US, and we use geo IP to filter european users for compliance (GDPR and otherwise)

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#42

Post by voltagex_ »

reincoder wrote: post #31

First, I am big fan of your articles even before I joined IPinfo, where we provide IP geolocation data service. Our geolocation methodology expands on the methodology you described. We utilize some of the publicly available datasets that you are using. However, the core geolocation data comes from our ping-based operation. We ping an IP address from multiple servers across the world and identify the location of the I…

Can your probes be identified and blocked?

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#43

Post by reincoder »

TheClassic wrote: post #38
reincoder wrote: post #31

First, I am big fan of your articles even before I joined IPinfo, where we provide IP geolocation data service. Our geolocation methodology expands on the methodology you described. We utilize some of the publicly available datasets that you are using. However, the core geolocation data comes from our ping-based operation. We ping an IP address from multiple servers across the world and identify the location of the I…

Your comment is extremely interesting and what I was hoping to learn from the article (without an existing source of information, how do we determine the location of an IP address). Thank you!

I really appreciate. Thank you. We are very transparent about our process. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us.

We have a simplified explanation of our probe network here: https://ipinfo.io/blog/probe-network-how-we-make-sure-our-da...

The only update is the number of servers is like 600+ now. The probe network is growing extremely rapidly.

Our IP geolocation process is quite complicated, and we have a team of data engineers, infrastructure engineers, and data scientists working on various aspects of it. Therefore, our approach is users can ask us questions, and we will try our best to answer them.

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#44

Post by kube-system »

voltagex_ wrote: post #42
reincoder wrote: post #31

First, I am big fan of your articles even before I joined IPinfo, where we provide IP geolocation data service. Our geolocation methodology expands on the methodology you described. We utilize some of the publicly available datasets that you are using. However, the core geolocation data comes from our ping-based operation. We ping an IP address from multiple servers across the world and identify the location of the I…

Can your probes be identified and blocked?

    iptables -A INPUT -p icmp -j DROP

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#47

Post by kube-system »

chaps wrote: post #45
kube-system wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iptables -A INPUT -p icmp -j DROP

This isn't helpful. The comment was specifically asking about the probes, not ICMP traffic.

Anybody can do this same thing, if you're worried about this, you probably don't want inbound ICMP.

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#48

Post by chaps »

kube-system wrote: post #47
chaps wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't helpful. The comment was specifically asking about the probes, not ICMP traffic.

Anybody can do this same thing, if you're worried about this, you probably don't want inbound ICMP.

Cool. Thanks. But let's say I do.

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#49

Post by eptyc1 »

kube-system wrote: post #44
voltagex_ wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can your probes be identified and blocked?

iptables -A INPUT -p icmp -j DROP

Indeed. Openwrt for some reason defaults to reply to pings. I see the value of ICMP for servers, but I don't see the value for home ISP routers.

I disabled ICMP reply on my home router.

Re: How to build a IP geolocation database from scratch?

#50

Post by matsur »

reincoder wrote: post #31

First, I am big fan of your articles even before I joined IPinfo, where we provide IP geolocation data service. Our geolocation methodology expands on the methodology you described. We utilize some of the publicly available datasets that you are using. However, the core geolocation data comes from our ping-based operation. We ping an IP address from multiple servers across the world and identify the location of the I…

ICMP response time not useful for “locating” an anycasted address, some of which have logical location associated with them. See https://blog.cloudflare.com/icloud-private-relay/ for an example
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