From owner-nanog@merit.edu Mon May 15 17:42:13 2006
From: Kevin Day <toasty@dragondata.com>
Subject: Re: Geo location to IP mapping
Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 17:40:23 -0500We use a Geo/IP location database. It's surprisingly accurate, with a
few exceptions.
[[ sneck ]]
Comparing the database to the IP that our customers used to make
purchases we exceed 95% accuracy in identifying the country, and
75-85% in city/state. The big exception is AOL, since their IP
assignments are pretty well randomized with respect to geography.
*dynamically* randomized, no less, or so I've been told. As in: _all_ the
customer session addresses are assigned out of *one* DHCP pool.
I thought that 'unlikely', considering the mayhem on internal routing tables,
but the AOL rep was rather insistant that that _was_ the case.
They also have 'virtual' POPs, where they just backhaul ('tens if not hundreds'
of miles, in same cases) voice, rather than having any physical equipment
present.