paulfryer
asked on
Deriving geographic data from an IP address
Is there a way to determine geographic information in by parsing an IP address? How is an IP address created? Do the numbers have any significance in terms of geographic location? If there is a database that defines the different parts of an IP address, where is it?
Basically I am trying to determine the location of web users and dynamically displaying content that is local to them by analyzing thier IP address.
Basically I am trying to determine the location of web users and dynamically displaying content that is local to them by analyzing thier IP address.
oops! I guess i have to take that back.. please scroll down to the very bottom of this page. http://www.vterrain.org/Culture/geocoding.html
:) SD
:) SD
this one maybe? http://sourceforge.net/projects/geoip/
No, Im sorry for posting this link (it's linking to a commercial website).
A better way is to use the whois requests from the Ripe, Arin or Apnic Whois Databases.
For more info check out http://msv.dk/ms470.asp, which shows you a good example of the request returns.
Now the tricky part to read the needed information. In PHP it will be something like this:
<?php
$ipaddr = "212.33.23.78"; //actual IP
$fp = fsockopen("whois.ripe.net"
if(!$fp)
echo "$errno: $errstr";
else
{
socket_set_timeout($fp, 10);
fwrite($fp, $ipaddr);
while (!feof($fp)){ $ipinfo .= fgets($fp); }
}
fclose($fp);
echo nl2br($ipinfo);
?>
The results will be stored in the $ipinfo variable.
Well, i think you can try this one.
A better way is to use the whois requests from the Ripe, Arin or Apnic Whois Databases.
For more info check out http://msv.dk/ms470.asp, which shows you a good example of the request returns.
Now the tricky part to read the needed information. In PHP it will be something like this:
<?php
$ipaddr = "212.33.23.78"; //actual IP
$fp = fsockopen("whois.ripe.net"
if(!$fp)
echo "$errno: $errstr";
else
{
socket_set_timeout($fp, 10);
fwrite($fp, $ipaddr);
while (!feof($fp)){ $ipinfo .= fgets($fp); }
}
fclose($fp);
echo nl2br($ipinfo);
?>
The results will be stored in the $ipinfo variable.
Well, i think you can try this one.
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I'm not sure what good the whois database is going to do...it might get you the right culture, and it might not. For example, my IP address returns:
OrgName: U S WEST Internet Services
OrgID: USW
Address: 950 17th Street
Address: Suite 1900
City: Denver
StateProv: CO
PostalCode: 80202
Country: US
NetRange: 65.100.0.0 - 65.103.255.255
CIDR: 65.100.0.0/14
NetName: USW-INTERACT99-2BLK
NetHandle: NET-65-100-0-0-1
Parent: NET-65-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.USWEST.NET
NameServer: NS2.DNVR.USWEST.NET
NameServer: NS3.MN.USWEST.NET
Comment: ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate: 2001-01-03
Updated: 2002-08-12
TechHandle: ZU24-ARIN
TechName: U S WEST ISOps
TechPhone: +1-612-664-4689
TechEmail: abuse@uswest.net
OrgAbuseHandle: QIA2-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Qwest IP Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@qwest.net
OrgNOCHandle: QIN-ARIN
OrgNOCName: Qwest IP NOC
OrgNOCPhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgNOCEmail: support@qwestip.net
OrgTechHandle: QIA-ARIN
OrgTechName: Qwest IP Admin
OrgTechPhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgTechEmail: ipadmin@qwest.com
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-08-08 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
Which might tell you I'm American, but you'd know that because you searched Arin, the US DB. If you search the Europe DB, I'll bet it's a lot less likely to indicate the correct country. Even then, you don't know a lot about the culture settings of the local machine. You pretty much need to use one of the commercial/semicommerical IP lookup products, if that's the way you're going to do it.
A better way is to first look if the HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE request header is set.
Also, there are lots of BrowserCap products out there. BrowserHawk tells me:
Language English
LangUser en-us
LangSystem en-us
BrowserHawk also uses IP lookup on an in-memory DB, but maybe you don't really need that. And I'm sure there are open source products...
The best bet is to look at a number of things. If HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE is set, then use that. If not, use an IP lookup...etc.
Regards,
Mike Sharp
OrgName: U S WEST Internet Services
OrgID: USW
Address: 950 17th Street
Address: Suite 1900
City: Denver
StateProv: CO
PostalCode: 80202
Country: US
NetRange: 65.100.0.0 - 65.103.255.255
CIDR: 65.100.0.0/14
NetName: USW-INTERACT99-2BLK
NetHandle: NET-65-100-0-0-1
Parent: NET-65-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.USWEST.NET
NameServer: NS2.DNVR.USWEST.NET
NameServer: NS3.MN.USWEST.NET
Comment: ADDRESSES WITHIN THIS BLOCK ARE NON-PORTABLE
RegDate: 2001-01-03
Updated: 2002-08-12
TechHandle: ZU24-ARIN
TechName: U S WEST ISOps
TechPhone: +1-612-664-4689
TechEmail: abuse@uswest.net
OrgAbuseHandle: QIA2-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Qwest IP Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@qwest.net
OrgNOCHandle: QIN-ARIN
OrgNOCName: Qwest IP NOC
OrgNOCPhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgNOCEmail: support@qwestip.net
OrgTechHandle: QIA-ARIN
OrgTechName: Qwest IP Admin
OrgTechPhone: +1-877-886-6515
OrgTechEmail: ipadmin@qwest.com
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-08-08 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
Which might tell you I'm American, but you'd know that because you searched Arin, the US DB. If you search the Europe DB, I'll bet it's a lot less likely to indicate the correct country. Even then, you don't know a lot about the culture settings of the local machine. You pretty much need to use one of the commercial/semicommerical IP lookup products, if that's the way you're going to do it.
A better way is to first look if the HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE request header is set.
Also, there are lots of BrowserCap products out there. BrowserHawk tells me:
Language English
LangUser en-us
LangSystem en-us
BrowserHawk also uses IP lookup on an in-memory DB, but maybe you don't really need that. And I'm sure there are open source products...
The best bet is to look at a number of things. If HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE is set, then use that. If not, use an IP lookup...etc.
Regards,
Mike Sharp
According to my experience, IPs change from time to time.
So it's possible that an IP belongs to Country X this year, and next year it becomes in Country Y.
There are different online services that provide you with up to date IP geography.
http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/ is one of those site in which you can benfit from their database in two ways:
1. Either you download their free database of IP classes and their distribution.
2. Or you subscribe to connect to their web service API to connect to them dynamically and get the IP information fresh at the run time of your site.
Hope this helps
So it's possible that an IP belongs to Country X this year, and next year it becomes in Country Y.
There are different online services that provide you with up to date IP geography.
http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/ is one of those site in which you can benfit from their database in two ways:
1. Either you download their free database of IP classes and their distribution.
2. Or you subscribe to connect to their web service API to connect to them dynamically and get the IP information fresh at the run time of your site.
Hope this helps
but here is some information ... http://www.private.org.il/IP2geo.html
:) SD