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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?

#71

Post by hddqsb »

gniv wrote: post #65
hddqsb wrote: post #58

Somewhat relevant: Google Maps can learn the location of your IP based on which locations you browse in the map. If you browse a specific location enough times, it will use that as the default location when you open Google Maps, even if you clear all cookies. (I discovered this just from using Google Maps, and I'm a little concerned by the privacy implications, considering that multiple people may share an IP address…

I suspect it's the other way around. Google just has a very good IP geolocation db, so it uses that when you browse, absent any other info.

Google certainly uses its geolocation DB, but it also learns based on map browsing patterns.

To clarify, the scenario I described is as follows: 1. Initially, when I open Google Maps in a clean browser it defaults to my real location. 2. I repeatedly browse some other location. 3. When I open Google Maps in a clean browser, it defaults to that other location. The only reason for Google Maps to pick that other location is my map browsing.

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

#72

Post by reincoder »

emadda wrote: post #61
louison11 wrote: post #11

If you don't want to do this yourself, you can actually just get Cloudflare to do it for you for free using a simple Worker since all Cloudflare requests contain approximate IP location information. You can also just send a request to my URL (Cloudflare Worker operated - so it should have global low latency): https://www.edenmaps.net/iplocation Use it for small applications, I don't mind. Just don't start sending me…

Does anyone know how accurate Cloudflare geolocation is (for workers requests)?

I work for IPinfo and we do ping based geolocation. The best thing you can do to verify geolocation accuracy is the following:

- Download a few free IP databases - Generate a random list of IP addresses - Do the IP address lookups across all those databases - Identify the IP address that can be pinged - Visit a site that can ping an IP address from multiple server - Sort the results by lowest avg ping time

Then check where the geolocation provider is locating the IP address and what is the nearest server from there.

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

#73

Post by chaps »

reincoder wrote: post #62
chaps wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not gonna lie, this creeps the heck out of me.

Thousands of people live in a zip code, while hundreds and thousands of people live in a city. We are literally giving away that data for free through our API and database. The creepiness of IP geolocation is mostly a meme. IP geolocation is mainly used in cybersecurity and marketing analytics. There are many ways to geolocate someone. I once came across a project that could estimate the country a user is from based…

And you're literally advertising this project as being helpful for targeted ads. So it's pretty clear from the get go that what you consider creepy isn't what I consider creepy. And having done enough reidentification work to scare myself, "thousands of people" might as well be a couple dozen or less. I get why you're defensive and why you think it's not creepy, but calling it a "meme" is insultingingly dismissive.

Just because it's "how things work on the internet" doesn't make its mass collection right. Under the same logic, any side channel attack is just "how it works", and its abuse warrants no ethical question.

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

#74

Post by gniv »

hddqsb wrote: post #71
gniv wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it's the other way around. Google just has a very good IP geolocation db, so it uses that when you browse, absent any other info.

Google certainly uses its geolocation DB, but it also learns based on map browsing patterns. To clarify, the scenario I described is as follows: 1. Initially, when I open Google Maps in a clean browser it defaults to my real location. 2. I repeatedly browse some other location. 3. When I open Google Maps in a clean browser, it defaults to that other location. The only reason for Google Maps to pick that other locatio…

Thanks for clarifying. That is indeed surprising and you are probably right.

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

#75

Post by kube-system »

chaps wrote: post #48
kube-system wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then there's nothing you can do. If you respond to pings, then others can take note of the responses you send.

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

#77

Post by Daviey »

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…

Would you consider no-signup inspection of the data you hold on the requesters IP address? I would love to see what you have on MY IP address, and if sufficiency accurate it feels that it would be a good incentive to sign up to use commerically.

It feels like it couldn't be abused by 'freeloaders', because i'd guess their use-case is viewing other peoples.

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

#78

Post by chaps »

kube-system wrote: post #75
chaps wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then there's nothing you can do. If you respond to pings, then others can take note of the responses you send.

You're missing the point that the question is effectively asking for a list of hosts that they can block.

Edit: they provided a method: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37510063

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

#79

Post by detourdog »

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…

I just noticed that my wifes iphone uses the same mycingular ip address while driving accross 3 states over 5 hours.l while checking mail.

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

#80

Post by kam »

Daviey wrote: post #77
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…

Would you consider no-signup inspection of the data you hold on the requesters IP address? I would love to see what you have on MY IP address, and if sufficiency accurate it feels that it would be a good incentive to sign up to use commerically. It feels like it couldn't be abused by 'freeloaders', because i'd guess their use-case is viewing other peoples.

This is literally the most prominent thing on the https://ipinfo.io home page.
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