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Concept
Internet geolocation
Summary
In computing, Internet geolocation is software capable of deducing the geographic position of a device connected to the Internet. For example, the device's IP address can be used to determine the country, city, or ZIP code, determining its geographical location. Other methods include examination of Wi-Fi hotspots,
An IP address is assigned to each device (e.g. computer, printer) participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. The protocol specifies that each IP packet must have a header which contains, among other things, the IP address of the sender.
There are a number of free and paid subscription geolocation databases, ranging from country level to state or city—including ZIP/post code level—each with varying claims of accuracy (generally higher at the country level). These databases typically contain IP address data which may be used in firewalls, ad servers, routing, mail systems, web sites, and other automated systems where a geolocation may be useful. An alternative to hosting and querying a database is to obtain the country code for a given IP address through a DNSBL-style lookup from a remote server.
Some commercial databases have augmented geolocation software with demographic data to enable demographic-type targeting using IP address data.
The primary source for IP address data is the regional Internet registries which allocate and distribute IP addresses amongst organizations located in their respective service regions:
African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC)
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)
Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC)
RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC)
The registries allow assignees to specify country and geographical coordinates of each assigned block. Starting from 2021 RFC 9092 allows assignees to specify location of any IP subnetwork they own.
Secondary sources include:
Data mining or user-submitted geographic location data:
Website-submitted, e.g.
Official source
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