On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 10:03 AM, Ca By <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 11:47 PM Abdullah DevRel of IPinfo via NANOG < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Geofeeds are useful because they cut out the middleman in terms of geo > > info, and provide a mechanism for someone to detect and react to that > change quickly, since a very large use case for these is targeted content > and advertising. > > I work for IPinfo. We use active measurements for IP geolocation as a > primary source of data. We consider geofeeds as a second-tier source of > information. We use it as a fallback data source when active measurements > fail. > > The honest reality is that geofeed does not provide verification metadata > of any form. > > The “honest reality”, as you say, is that geolocation firms like yours > have failed to provide reliable data to paying customers for years. > > That is why the IETF made geofeeds. > > My customers started having outages because geolocation firms have bad > data, and enterprises use that bad data in firewall and cdn rules which > cause outages. For example, geolocation firms provide data that a customer > IP is in xyz country but the firewall rules only allow abc country… > > Anyhow, as a person who publishes geofeed data representing 100s of > millions of users, please …everyone… publish and consume first party > geofeed data and do not listen to FUD from people trying to sell you the > same data that we publish for free. > A quick shout out to Massimo Candela, and the excellent https://geolocatemuch.com/. They walk the IRR databases, collect all of the GeoFeed: files, perform validation on them, and then publish all validated feeds in a single file: https://geolocatemuch.com/geofeeds/validated-all.csv This is a ~26MB file, containing the ~575131 prefixes with geofeeds… This page also has a nice "Test your geofeed" feature, which allows you to, um, check your geofeed. E.g: https://geolocatemuch.com/?resource=31.130.224.1 This is an address in the IETF Meeting network prefix - the next meeting, IETF 125 is in Shenzhen, and so we've pre-published a Geofeed file for this: https://noc.ietf.org/geo/google.csv W > They can be stale, wrong, or false, and maintaining them is a pain for ASN > > providers. Many large telecoms do not even have publicly accessible > geofeed. For example, AS11260 (Eastlink.ca <http://eastlink.ca/>) does > not have a publicly accessible geofeed to my knowledge, and I am not sure > who to reach out to get one. Not all ASNs are going to publish geofeeds, > and it is fine. > > Providing IP geolocation data has real value, and I do not believe it is > the ASN or ISP's responsibility to have their data accurately reflected on > third-party IP geolocation providers like us. > > The ideal operation that we have is this: we do IP geolocation based on > building networks of servers running active measurements, working with > ASNs, attending conferences and talking with as many ASNs and range > operators as possible. Shake as many hands as possible. It sounds > borderline impossible, but honestly, that is the only fair way to operate > as an IP geolocation provider. > > If, in any case, an ASN does not want to help us, that is fine, but that > does not excuse negligence on our part towards end users. Our > responsibility is towards end users (the customers of ASNs; internet users) > and ASNs can be just voluntary partners. The moment an ASN, ISP, or an end > user has an issue, we have to jump into the conversation and fix the issue. > > That is why I am here. There is a mention of the word "geolocation" in the > NANOG forum, and we have to come here and ask if everything is okay. Do you > have any issues with us? Can you check your data with us? Can you help us > fix the issue? > > This MO of IP geolocation as a service should be: aggressive outreach. But > we also have to admit that we are not the only provider, and we are not > even the largest provider out there. But we do not care, we have to be > responsible to everyone. We have to back our data. > > — Abdullah | DevRel, IPinfo > > https://www.linkedin.com/in/reincoder/ > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/ > SDOEDEZ7UUM4FZNHQJQBFCIR4W3HEP2X/ > > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/ > 3KXUUIAGK773J2SFJLVLPNXBI3GJ7USG/ > _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/SJUU22TNVS42SIZGAUSWV2KNW5OCKVCU/
