Accuracy of GeoIP?

Alan

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Oct 27, 2011, 2:38:32 AM10/27/11

to Django users

Does anyone have experience with the accuracy of GeoIP? I'm getting
locations that are wildly off...

When I plug in the IP from http://whatismyipaddress.com/ I get
somewhere in the middle of Kansas when I'm in Chicago.

On the other hand using a Google IP address (mentioned in the example
below) correctly gives the lat/long of Mountain View

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/gis/geoip/

I'm referencing data donwloaded from MaxMind:
http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/
As instructed by the link above.

I didn't run into any installation problems, so I assume there's a
data discrepancy somewhere; does anyone know of any known issues?

Thanks

Tom Evans

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Oct 27, 2011, 5:31:28 AM10/27/11

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GeoIP is wildly inaccurate, particularly the free version. Using it to
predict reliably any more than the correct country is risky, and even
that fails a lot. Many GeoIP databases put me in Germany because my IP
address belongs to DeutscheTelecom and is leased to my (UK) ISP.

Cheers

Tom

Ilya

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Oct 27, 2011, 7:31:47 AM10/27/11

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Alan, try out our geolocation solution: Geobaza. We recently updated our Python API and make Django app.

High accuracy level for US & exUSSR.

Install from PyPi: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/geobaza

Docs here: http://geobaza.ru/docs/python/v1/

Demo: http://geobaza.ru/try/

Feel free to send me your feedback ;)

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Kurtis Mullins

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Oct 27, 2011, 1:13:54 PM10/27/11

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I just tried the demo and it put me about 2,500 miles away in Texas. Good luck!

Charles Cossé

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Oct 27, 2011, 2:56:31 PM10/27/11

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Hello, I've been using GeoIP for a few years ... but the trick is to use a different database than the default. Don't know where to get it, but it's called: GeoLiteCity.dat I'm sure it's readily available, but not with a default install (think).

-Charles Cosse

AsymptopiaSoftware|Software@theLimit
http://www.asymptopia.org

Alex Mandel

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Oct 27, 2011, 11:53:41 PM10/27/11

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You just need to go to the maxmind website to download it.
GeoIP free data also comes from them but is slightly older and on their
website you can choose country, city and regional datasets to use.

Thanks,
Alex

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