31–40 of 42 posts
…getting a homelab project idea, where I create LOC records for devices without a dynamic IP address so I can figure out where the f*k they are without having to keep a continuous mental map running at all times. Free up some mental bandwidth as it were. Very, very cool function to have. I wonder how feasible it’d be to dynamically update it using GPS measurements for fleet tracking, given even Cloudflare had to patc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know that the accuracy afforded by LOC would be enough to pinpoint objects inside a house, though the optional fields may perhaps be used to provide room/rack location.
Lat/lon are in thousandths of a second of arc. If I did my math right, that means the worst-case precision is a hair over 3cm. Altitude is in centimeters, so on a comparable scale. Looks to me like it is accurate enough to locate even the smallest network-connected devices! Provided someone doesn't invent wifi-connected rice grains, of course.
This should be a standard feature of server cages. The base rack itself could have a GPS receiver and provide the relative location of each rack.
That way when you nudge the rack over a few feet to make room for the foosball table it automatically updates its own physical location.
That's nice and all, but is there anything that consumes LOC records?
That's a good question. During 2024 Summer Olympics my then employer which DNS and core network I was still managing as I returned summer holiday. I was told by helpdesk our users around different locations at campus were not able to open national TV broadcaster streaming services and view the games. I found out by asking few of these users that they got denied claiming to be from UK and that streaming services were…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICBM_address
(It's funny that the Wikipedia article has it in the section Modern use)
…getting a homelab project idea, where I create LOC records for devices without a dynamic IP address so I can figure out where the f*k they are without having to keep a continuous mental map running at all times. Free up some mental bandwidth as it were. Very, very cool function to have. I wonder how feasible it’d be to dynamically update it using GPS measurements for fleet tracking, given even Cloudflare had to patc…
…getting a homelab project idea, where I create LOC records for devices without a dynamic IP address so I can figure out where the f*k they are without having to keep a continuous mental map running at all times. Free up some mental bandwidth as it were. Very, very cool function to have. I wonder how feasible it’d be to dynamically update it using GPS measurements for fleet tracking, given even Cloudflare had to patc…
Even without LOC, there's also TXT. In my work lab (size of a medium DC, tonnes of devices from a variety of vendors) we used formatted TXT records to store things like: rack elevations, host/port for serial access server, switched power outlet info, reservation status, loan / return info and more. With this and cnames for rack numbers/elevations, with simple scripts we could do more than either a free-but-clunky or…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a good question. During 2024 Summer Olympics my then employer which DNS and core network I was still managing as I returned summer holiday. I was told by helpdesk our users around different locations at campus were not able to open national TV broadcaster streaming services and view the games. I found out by asking few of these users that they got denied claiming to be from UK and that streaming services were…
These days RFC8805[0] is pretty widely supported. But as far as I understand, it's not entirely trusted and geolocation providers will still override that data if it doesn't match traceroutes and whatever other sources they use https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8805
After reading that RFC8805 here it's what it writes situation at the time of publishing August 2020.
"8. Finding Self-Published IP Geolocation Feeds" and subsequent
The issue of finding, and later verifying, geolocation feeds is not formally specified in this document. At this time, only ad hoc feed discovery and verification has a modicum of established practice (see below); discussion of other mechanisms has been removed for clarity."
and subsequently
"8.1. Ad Hoc 'Well-Known' URIs
To date, geolocation feeds have been shared informally in the form of HTTPS URIs exchanged in email threads. Three example URIs ([GEO_IETF], [GEO_RIPE_NCC], and [GEO_ICANN]) describe networks that change locations periodically, the operators and operational practices of which are well known within their respective technical communities."
I spent also a moment trying to figure out what can I find about its adoption and use and didn't find much of it. Some blog posts, articles and comments to question whether Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure support it and answers were pretty much nope, no they don't at least yet time of writing last year and this year.
Thus I'm concluding it's unlikely any major source of location information for GeoIP providers like MaxMind. Nope they're not, it's too marginal source for them to spend time on so little used spec yet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a good question. During 2024 Summer Olympics my then employer which DNS and core network I was still managing as I returned summer holiday. I was told by helpdesk our users around different locations at campus were not able to open national TV broadcaster streaming services and view the games. I found out by asking few of these users that they got denied claiming to be from UK and that streaming services were…
They could get a rough estimate of an IP location using traceroute from many different known locations. Very rough but it’s a starting point. For some cases, they might just lookup who owns that IP range and put their address as the IP location.
One possibility is BGP advertised and known information like https://www.cidr-report.org provides could be used. But like I wrote commercial GeoIP data providers are not allowed to use WHOIS information from RIR registries. It's their ToS generally prevent it being collected and resold why MaxMind told me that they don't use it.
Thus the LOC information I had updated RIPE DB in our records LOC or any other information there were not used by MaxMind. Or at least that's what they claim. True or not I don't know, but that's what they tell if you ask from them.
Also apparently they did not use LOC records from the organization domain I maintained DNS LOC records either. And I got no answer why nor what they use as their sources of information. As it's more likely some kind of trade secret of them.