Reputable geo-ip location Services

Question

Who are some of the reputable and/or stable geo-ip location service providers? I'm specing out an application that needs this functionality, and whenever I google geo-ip I get a ton of hits, but it's hard to tell who the legit providers are and who the fly-by-night folks are.

Ideally I'd like something that can run without a call to an external API (i.e. regular database updates), but would be interested in hearing about experience with providers who offer live/http services. If it ran in PHP that would be great, but so long as it could run in a *nix environment that's fine. I'd prefer a paid service from a reputable provider than an awesome free service that could vanish tomorrow (free services are welcome, just convince me they're not going to vanish).

Answer 1

Try Geonames: you can download their database and then maybe index it with Solr or something to give you a service isolated from the outside world and which you can update on a needs basis.

Related question

Answer 2

Maxmind has a free and pay for use version of their service. It's excellent, has a Pear class you can use Net::Geo_IP (IIRC). Just install whatever version of their DB you need and you're all set. Have used it many times.

Give them a look as well. Maxmind

Answer 3

Here are a couple of good ones. They have been around for a few years now. IP2Location.com if you want regular database downloads while you can try FraudLabs.com if you want to utilize a web service instead. I believe both can be used with just about any environment.