On Aug 6, 2011 8:48 AM, "Walter Hurry" <walterhurry@lavabit.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 05 Aug 2011 10:10:47 -0500, John Hasler wrote:
>
> > Tong writes:
> >> Thanks for the hint, Darac. Found it's source. FYI, the geographical
> >> info can be at the state/province level.
> >
> > Note that, while useful, this data is not reliable.
>
> Yes, lots of gaps it seems. I've had a look at it, and my data (even
> though no apparently no longer updated; see my other post in this thread)
> seems more reliable at the moment.
>
What I was referring to is the ability to transfer an ip address from one location to any other (how all internet traffic got routed through China a year or so ago - a bit fuzzy on the story so feel free to correct). See, ip allocation is actually done pretty safely and allows for real small router tables. However as big businesses, vps services, and the likes reroute addresses for reliability, it bloates router tables and makes your geoip stuff pretty moot.
This is why I said that I'd step back a few hops and look at the location of the ip of the router. If l3 or Verizon move the ip of one of their $100k+ border routers, it can take the internet days to recover so they don't tend to do it (most of them are configured as static routes). So, though you might not be able to say that an ip is in a particular city or even in a state, you'll at least be sure of the region.
Now, if you can do a little programming (or even setup a view in your db), you could say 'show me the location of the ip unless the location of the router is >1000 miles away'.