nanog mailing list archives
Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences
From: Laszlo Hanyecz <laszlo () heliacal net>
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2016 12:40:19 +0000
On 2016-04-13 05:57, Todd Crane wrote:
As to a solution, why don’t we just register the locations (more or less) with ARIN? Hell, with the amount of money we all pay them in annual fees, I can’t imagine it would be too hard for them to maintain. They could offer it as part of their public whois service or even just make raw data files public. Just a though —Todd
Ultimately these services want to locate users, not routers, servers, tablets and such. If you want to answer the question "where is the user?" then you have to ask them - only they know the answer - not their ISP, not ARIN, not DNS. If you really insist on using the IP address, then maybe you could connect to it and ask it, like an identd scheme. This could be built into a web browser and prompt the user asking permission. As long as we're using a static list of number -> location we will just be guessing and hoping they stay near the assumed location and we're not too wrong. This whole practice of trying to map network numbers is the problem.
Also note that one of the things that wasn't explicitly mentioned in the original article but was hinted at was the use of something similar to Skyhook, another static list of address -> location. It sounded like the 'find my phone' services were leading people to an Atlanta home based on having a wireless access point that was recorded as being there. This is similarly wrong, but not the same as geolocating IP addresses. It geolocates wireless AP MAC addresses. You can really see this break down when the wireless AP is on a bus.
-Laszlo
Current thread:
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences, (continued)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences John Levine (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Laszlo Hanyecz (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Sean Donelan (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Leo Bicknell (Apr 12)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Larry Sheldon (Apr 12)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Jean-Francois Mezei (Apr 12)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Todd Crane (Apr 12)
- RE: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Nathan Anderson (Apr 13)
- RE: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Sven-Haegar Koch (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Christian de Larrinaga (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Laszlo Hanyecz (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Todd Crane (Apr 14)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 15)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Jay Hennigan (Apr 14)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Jean-Francois Mezei (Apr 13)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Baldur Norddahl (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Niels Bakker (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences Valdis . Kletnieks (Apr 11)
- Re: GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences John Levine (Apr 12)