I have a customer who received a new assignment from ARIN, but the
GeoIP data is returning Canada rather than the US as the location of
the IP prefix. Google redirects to www.google.ca and some other sites
aren't working correctly because they expect a US IP. Does anyone
have any advice on how to update the GeoIP and other similar
databases?
Thanks.
Wouldn't a SWIP for a sub-allocation work?
I was under the impression that most of the GeoIP services fed off of WHOIS
registration data points.
Than again, maybe I have no idea. 
- - ferg
I don't know how Google does GeoIP, but not all of them work off SWIP.
Perhaps Chuck should ask Google instead of NANOG?
What's the allocation?
74.112.8.0/21
Google has been contacted and they said it will take a month for stuff
to update. The customer has also updated hostip.info.
We've had this happen with many new IP allocations. There's a Google FAQ for it at...
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=873
Take care,
Matt
Thanks for that link, it must be relatively new, cause I couldn't find that
around Christmas time last year.
What we need is a "master update" form where Akamai, Google, Maxmind,
hostip.info, Geobytes, ip2location, ipgeo, etc can be notified about
changes.
Frank
Perhaps we as the ISP community need to realise that we need to somehow publish this data (town or something alike) via some kind of standardized API?
Right now I guess they use tracking cookies together with e-commerce account registration to deduct where an IP is from?
I bet each company uses a variety of methods to build their data set, not
least of which is the one you mentioned.
I don't think the larger (and by larger, I meant the ones with the most
users) ISP community is so concerned about the accuracy of geoIP info, or
even need to follow the routes we do, but there would be benefit to everyone
else.
And I don't think the interested members here on NANOG have the collective
ability (in this virtual world) to interest any of the mentioned geoIP sites
to work with us (NANOG). The most successful strategy would be for a NANOG
member to work through their corporate (physical) channels to establish the
relationships, and then bring the rest of NANOG on board.
Sorry to rain on the parade, but face-to-face seems to be what it takes to
make things like this happen.
Frank
What we need is a "master update" form where Akamai, Google, Maxmind,
hostip.info, Geobytes, ip2location, ipgeo, etc can be notified about
changes.Perhaps we as the ISP community need to realise that we need to somehow
publish this data (town or something alike) via some kind of standardized
API?
hey lookie! dns TXT records!! 
Right now I guess they use tracking cookies together with e-commerce account
registration to deduct where an IP is from?
there are probably many ways to do this, sure... but if there were a
standard API that was updated and accurate it might make things
simpler for all involved, eh?
Christopher Morrow wrote:
hey lookie! dns TXT records!!
dns LOC records.
LOC records too. 
dig @prisoner.iana.org hostname.as112.net any
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hostname.as112.net. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
hostname.as112.net. 604800 IN SOA as112.gigafed.net. dns.ryouko.imsb.nrc.ca. 1 604800 60 604800 604800
hostname.as112.net. 604800 IN LOC 45 25 0.000 N 75 42 0.000 W 80.00m 1m 10000m 10m
Helpful for folks like CAIDA too.
wfms
Have this seen any widespread use? I mean, there needs to be tens of percent of users having these before they'll get used by the GeoIP people.
People who are evil (or people seeking privacy) will intentionally put bad
data, thus ruining the whole thing.
I don't think self-reporting is the answer.
You MIGHT be able to determine location based on a traceroute, though
anycast would surely derail such attempts. I suspect most people rely on
3rd party GeoIP databases, and that those companies aren't interested in
hearing from you about your location change, mostly because they are
worried that if they do, the evildoers will overrun them with bad
requests, or bait and switch, making their data less accurate than it is
now without your block being correct.
Which I can understand.
I wouldn't mind create LOC records for our IP address ranges, but doesn't
make much sense if the "GeoIP people" don't look at it or care. Hence the
need for someone who is relevant to them to open the dialog.
I've never received a negative comment when submitting a correction request
to "GeoIP people". Of course, they don't make it really easy to do so and
it seems that half the time it needs to be done via back-channels.
Of course the "GeoIP people" are going to vet the submissions, but if
existing entry is Spain or Germany and the traceroute shows that the
previous hop was somewhere in the US midwest, I think they can figure it
out. =) I'm sure they have mechanisms to track changes and new allocations,
but some things will slip through the cracks or in the case of use sales
data, be delayed.
The process that I'm suggesting is for corrective action, not to be the
basis for the "GeoIP people" to build their database. That's why I'm
suggesting a comprehensive form that gets sent to all the "GeoIP people".
It's a way they can receive requests in a systematic way that can help them
improve the accuracy of their database.
Frank
I don't think self-reporting is the answer.
You MIGHT be able to determine location based on a traceroute, though
anycast would surely derail such attempts. I suspect most people rely on
3rd party GeoIP databases, and that those companies aren't interested in
hearing from you about your location change, mostly because they are
worried that if they do, the evildoers will overrun them with bad
requests, or bait and switch, making their data less accurate than it is
now without your block being correct.
Having recently leapt through a few GeoIP hoops to see about getting records fixed[1], perhaps the NANOG wiki could feature 'known ways to fix GeoIP' and be used as a reference?
Seems to be something that's going to be more, not less, significant to customers and network operators alike going forward.
Mark.
Perhaps we as the ISP community need to realise that we need to somehow
publish this data (town or something alike) via some kind of standardized
API?hey lookie! dns TXT records!!
LOC
randy
Of course the "GeoIP people" are going to vet the submissions, but if
existing entry is Spain or Germany and the traceroute shows that the
previous hop was somewhere in the US midwest, I think they can figure it
out. =)
The "hop before it" is not necessarily a good indication these days with MPLS tunnels. There is this thing called the Speed Of Light. It's very annoying most of the time, but it can be useful for geo location if you have multiple vantage points to ping / trace to a destination.
The return packet can be delayed infinitely, but it cannot be sped up past c. Really about 0.666c if you believe the path is in fiber, which I personally believe is a useful assumption for every path on the 'Net to several decimal places (since things like satellite hops, while not in fiber, will give your far higher latency, and microwave just is not used enough to matter). If you ping something from San Jose and get a response in under 50 ms, the machine which sent the reply packet _cannot_ be in Germany or China. Those pesky Laws of Physics get in the way.[*]
What's more, if you ping the same destination from, say, Los Angeles and Boston, and each test returns in 40 ms, you now have narrowed the possible locations down quite a bit.
There are always exceptions, but sometimes they are obvious. Pinging the same destination from LAX & BOS and getting 5 ms each... well, that's obviously anycast (or a broken test). Fortunately, most destinations are unicast and stationary, so there are ways to narrow down the location using tools like this.