On Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Matt Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The MaxMind data definitely has some errors. (They claim 99.3%
> accuracy; higher if you pay them... Thus I think that 0.7% error is
> deliberate.) My machine (66.197.144.101) is in Pennsylvania, but was
> tagged as being in Brazil. Mine got left that way deliberately, since
<snip>
Given the errors in all IP geolocation services, wouldn't it make
sense to allow pool server operators to identify their country (and
maybe LAT/LONG) alongside their bandwidth? This could be of course
optional, falling back on the MaxMind/whatever geolocation data if
operator-supplied location data is not present.

That way we would at least know the servers are being served in the
correct DNS zone, regardless of any bad data in the MaxMind database.
The clients, of course, would still rely on MaxMind data unless they
specified a country zone directly when querying DNS.

If the MaxMind data is truly accurate >99%, it is probably not worth
it. But I fear it is far less accurate than that, especially if it is
based mostly on whois data. I have seen quite a few issues in MaxMind
(and other GeoIP service) data over the years. We also actually tried
and quickly abandoned IP-based Geolocation on our customer-facing web
sites, as many of our customers are located in one country but part of
an organization whose network is "homed" in another country. That is a
very common situation in the corporate world, but unfortunately one in
which MaxMind (and other geolocation providers) apparently have little
visibility.
-- 
RPM
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