Re: GeoIP information

[Ray Van Dolson <rvandolson () esri com>]

On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 09:41:42PM -0400, William Herrin wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2015 at 9:33 PM, Ian Clark <ian.clark () dreamhost com> wrote:
> > Where do GeoIP companies get their data, if not whois records?
>
> I would assume that they query whois for one of their sources. They
> don't have to enter any contract with ARIN to do so but they also
> can't promptly collect any sizable portion database that way. That
> isn't the same as signing up for bulk whois access
> (https://www.arin.net/resources/request/bulkwhois.html).
>
> I imagine they also do traceroutes to identify the last known location
> in the route.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin

I assumed it must be based off of WHOIS.  The IP space I'm working with
is in the midwest (US).  The address associated with it is from our
primary IP block out here in California, which it would have only been
able to gather from WHOIS.  If it had gone off the last hop, presumably
it would have seen that as something a little closer to the real
location rather than *exactly* where our primary environment is. :)

Ray