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Comment by warner25 | Hacker News Reader

From where do you get your geolocation information? I've been using the free MaxMind GeoLite2 databases and the GeoIP2 Python API for this kind of thing, but for a lot of IP addresses that I'd like to map, I can only get down to the country (and even some of those seem suspect).

Is there any rate limit for queries?

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To be fair, some IPs simply can't reasonably be mapped beyond the country level (even if MaxMind often tries).

For example in Germany some carriers just give you a random IP from a pool that is used for half the country, and will give you a new IP every 24 hours. How would you geolocate those with a downloadable database.

IP Guide is also using MaxMind, I'm not familiar with many other data sources for that kind of data. Are you seeing discrepancies?

No rate limits or auth for requests, but as mentioned below the api starts to load shed at 2k concurrent requests.

Thanks. Yeah, I was just hoping it might have access to some different data. I've seen no discrepancy. I tried one IP address that I've been trying to map, and I got the same answer.

Their city level data tends to be proprietary so maybe double check you’re ok in your use.

I have yet to see a geo-ip address for my IP that shows me even on the correct side of the country. I wouldn't trust this information as far as you can throw it ... and I've had this IP address for nearly 6 years now.

Can you check IPinfo.io, please? If we are showing any inaccuracy in your IP geolocation data for you, please reach out to us. We will fix that ASAP.

yeah, it's very wrong. Showing "vpn: true" (actually a regular residential connection), wrong city, region, postcode, etc. Just like every other service out there.

I don't see any way to report it though.

That is really surprising. For geolocation correction, we have a self reporting system: ipinfo.io/corrections

I forgot to add the link in my original comment. But as you mentioned we are showing VPN as true, that indicates a very interesting situation. Can you ping our support, please?

https://ipinfo.io/support

If you can also mention that, you came from HN, that will be fantastic. We will open an engineering ticket first thing Monday and look closely into this. The situation is unusual, and I am sorry about the inconvenience.

I'd also suggest filing a correction with MaxMind, which is where most modern geolocation data is derived: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-location-correction.

Isn't there an alternative to MaxMind? Seems like a problem if they're the only useful source and they can change their license/fee to anything they want at any time.

In most cases, their database is entirely free as in free beer. You can't modify and contribute back to it, though (for somewhat obvious reasons). You can download a free local copy and purchase a more advanced version with more information. But if you need a simple lookup, the database is free, excellent, and is updated twice a week.

https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geolite2-free-geolocation-data

Submitted a support request. My email address is also in my profile, feel free to reach out directly. I can also open a wireguard configuration for you guys if you want to run some tests. I do see that my ipv6 prefix results in a correct location.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate you opening a ticket. We will look into it and keep you updated.

How big is the MaxMind database ?

About 80mb for the city level one

A few MBs

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