How does geolocation based on IP address work?

Posted by Martin on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Martin
Published on 2012-07-06T19:51:48Z Indexed on 2012/07/06 21:19 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 301

Filed under:

database

|

ip-address

|

isp

|

geolocation

As all Internet users, I've visited web sites which appear to know in which country and city I'm located. I understand that these web sites typically look up my IP address in a database which maps IP address to country / city which works fairly well. I've also seen companies selling this type of database.

How is this database, which maps an IP address to a country / city, created in the first place?

Is there a central database somewhere where each ISP registers the link between IP address and country/city? Or does the companies selling geolocation databases contact different ISP's and purchase the mapping information from them? Or is there some organization 'above' ISP's who keeps track of this?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about database

SQL SERVER Retrieve and Explore Database Backup without Restoring Database Idera virtual database

as seen on Dot net Slackers - Search for 'Dot net Slackers'
I recently downloaded Ideras SQL virtual database, and tested it. There are a few things about this tool which caught my attention.My ScenarioIt is quite common in real life that sometimes observing or retrieving older data is necessary; however, it had changed as time passed by. The full database… >>> More
Cloning A Database On The Same Server Using Rman Duplicate From Active Database

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
To clone a database using Rman we used to require an existing Rman backup, on 11g we can clone databases using the "from active" database option. In this case we do not require an existing backup, the active datafiles will be used as the source for the clone. In order to clone with the source database… >>> More
cPickle ImportError: No module named multiarray

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello, I'm using cPickle to save my Database into file. The code looks like that: def Save_DataBase(): import cPickle from scipy import * from numpy import * a=Results.VersionName #filename='D:/results/'+a[a.find('/')+1:-a.find('/')-2]+Results.AssType[:3]+str(random.randint(0,100))+Results.Distribution+"… >>> More
SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to Snapshot Database – Restore From Snapshot

as seen on SQL Authority - Search for 'SQL Authority'
Snapshot database is one of the most interesting concepts that I have used at some places recently. Here is a quick definition of the subject from Book On Line: A Database Snapshot is a read-only, static view of a database (the source database). Multiple snapshots can exist on a source database and… >>> More
OTN ???? ?????? ???????

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Database ?? Database ??????? Database ?????????? Java WebLogic Server/????????·???? SOA/BPM/????? ???????/???? ID??/?????? ?????EPM/BI EPM/BI ??????? EPM/BI ???? OS/??? ???? ????? MySQL Database ?? ???? ?? ????????? ??? ?? ORACLE MASTER… >>> More

Related posts about ip-address

Logging IP address for uniqueness without storing the IP address itself for privacy

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In a web application when logging some data I'd like to make sure I can identify data that came at differetn times but from the same IP address. On the other hand for privacy concerns as the data will be released publicly I'd like to make sure the actual IP cannot be retrieved. So I need some one… >>> More
Problem with setup VPN in Ubuntu Server 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a problem with setup VPN server on my Ubuntu VPS, here is my server environments: Ubuntu Server 12.04 x86_64 xl2tpd 1.3.1+dfsg-1 pppd 2.4.5-5ubuntu1 openswan 1:2.6.38-1~precise1 After install software and configuration: ipsec verify Checking your system to see if IPsec got installed and… >>> More
Problem with setup VPN on Ubuntu Server 12.04

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a problem with setup VPN server on my Ubuntu VPS, here is my server environments: Ubuntu Server 12.04 x86_64 xl2tpd 1.3.1+dfsg-1 pppd 2.4.5-5ubuntu1 openswan 1:2.6.38-1~precise1 After install software and configuration: ipsec verify Checking your system to see if IPsec got installed and… >>> More
My Ip Address - Windows Vista - ipconfig : Cant find my ip address

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, I type in doc $ ipconfig but not get My Ip Address. I get other values but not my ip address. Please help me, Thanks Yosef My Computer: Windows Vista adsl router (for few computers) My Ip is temp each time that i connect web he change >>> More
Determine if IP Address is Cellular IP Address

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
In .NET Compact Framework a device can have several IP Addresses I want to find one that is NOT coming from the Cellular connection. Goal is for WiFi or Ethernet connection. Is there a way to do this? Seems like State and Notification Broker would have a way to do this but didn't see a way. >>> More