Know a good IP address Geolocation Service?

Question

I'd like to get your impressions on any ip geolocation (as in IP to location) service services you may have employed?

I'm looking for something free or cheap, which shouldn't be unrealistic because I need to make a very small volume of requests.

Anything with python bindings would be especially ideal.

Answer 1

We've worked with three different providers of such services in the past 4 years. We started with Geobytes. We've since moved to Digital Envoy. At the time we used geobytes, we had to go through a manual process to update our database with their data updates. Digital Envoy provides software to run on a local server that contacts tehir "Master Server" over the (large I) Internet nightly. We have a C library interface and get round-trip times from the server on the order of 600 microseconds, in our Gigabit internal network. The Digital Envoy tech support has been responsive.

In recent months we've also experimented with Quova, which has had somewhat better data in the realm of information about anonymous proxy services.

I can't comment on the prices of the various services, I'm not involved in that end of the business.

With all of them, we've had issues where customers questioned the vailidy of the data. I thank that's going to be true with whatever service you use. It's hard to validate the data.

Answer 2

We use IP2Location on several projects, you purchase a database of Geocoded locations from them, so it's very fast (as it's on your local network).

But if you're after a free one I'm come across this web service: http://www.webservicex.net/WCF/ServiceDetails.aspx?SID=46

Answer 3

hostip.info is a free database that maps IP to country/city. It's not very accurate unfortunately.

Answer 4

I have been looking into this for my company as well.

Here are a couple of pay ones that look very good http://www.ip2location.com http://www.maxmind.com

And here is a freebie! http://iploc.mwudka.com/index.html

Answer 5

I like the free GeoLite City from Maxmind which works for most applications and from which you can upgrade to a paying version if it's not precise enough. There is a Python API included, as well as for other languages. And if you are running Lighttpd as a webserver, you can even use a module to get the information in the SERVER variable for every visitor if that's what you need.

Edit: I should add there is also a free Geolite Country (which would be faster if you don't need to pinpoint the city the IP is from) and Geolite ASN (if you want to know who owns the IP) and that finally all these are downloadable on your own server, are updated every month and are pretty quick to lookup with the provided APIs as they state "thousands of lookups per second".

Answer 6

I can also vouch for MaxMind's GeoIP product. We use it on a very large internet radio website (which is restricted by licensing to only stream to users in the US) and it works great. For only $12 per update (for country data), it's WAY cheaper than some of the other companies.

They also have other databases down to the city level, too - it just depends on what level of granularity you need.

Answer 7

This one works great for me. Returns an XML file to the query.

It's free and pretty accurate http://ipinfodb.com

Answer 8

Any API available for Mobile website for "user's current location GPS tracking" ? As Mobile handset service provider uses common gateway IP for all users. Sp all user's connected with that service provider will get same location on his cell phone(due to default common gateway).

I am wondering if any web based API available who works with handset GPS (which handset have available this) or Cell ID / GPPRS. So there will distinguish between users and his current “exact location”.

Answer 9

The answer is the whois database. Use the whois command on Linux, for example:

$ host www.stackoverflow.com
www.stackoverflow.com is an alias for stackoverflow.com.
stackoverflow.com has address 69.59.196.211
stackoverflow.com mail is handled by 20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
stackoverflow.com mail is handled by 30 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.
stackoverflow.com mail is handled by 40 aspmx2.googlemail.com.
stackoverflow.com mail is handled by 50 aspmx3.googlemail.com.
stackoverflow.com mail is handled by 10 aspmx.l.google.com.
$ whois 69.59.196.211

OrgName:    Peak Inc.
OrgID:      PEAKIN-3
Address:    1600 SW Western Suite #180
City:       Corvallis
StateProv:  OR
PostalCode: 97333
Country:    US

...

Use the first "County" or "country" field. You will get the country of the network block which contains the IP. Try it at http://whois.domaintools.com/ It does not get GPS coordinates for you, but you can determine the country.

Answer 10

This is good:

http://ipinfodb.com/ip_database.php

Answer 11

Since you prefer free or cheap IP geolocation service, I would recommend the FraudLabs' IP2Location free web service at http://www.fraudlabs.com/ip2location.aspx. You just have to sign up for a free account.

Answer 12

since you prefer a cheap Ip-details provider, i may suggest a cheap and best site, that is http://www.whoisxy.com/ I was used to it and it was useful to get accurate details for IP-details location.