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Posted by Jerry Stuckle on 09/10/07 15:30
esoterik wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:52:36 -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>
>> esoterik wrote:
>>> On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:19:23 -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>>>
>>>> esoterik wrote:
>>>>> On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:32:18 +0000, Rob wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Just wondering how sites capture a visitor's IP address and how this is
>>>>>> done in PHP?
>>>>> any ideas how the ip address is resolved to a zipcode/location without
>>>>> using one of the commercial lists?
>>>>>
>>>> Nope, and even then it is not accurate. For instance, all AOL users
>>>> show as coming from Virginia. And when I'm on my dialup account from
>>>> MD, it shows I'm coming from NY.
>>>>
>>>> You can get a state (or, as in the case of the Washington, DC area, a
>>>> metro area) in maybe 70-90% of the cases. But the more accurate you try
>>>> to narrow it down, the less accurate your location will be.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> how exactly would you narrow it down to even the metro area of where the
>>> IP is registered to? I know visual traceroutes exist, but I'm not sure how
>>> I could write a script to resolve IP to an 'area' short of using cURL to
>>> strip it off someone elses website.
>>>
>> Tracing the route does nothing. You need an ip address to location
>> reference. The most accurate (still not very accurate) are available
>> for a charge; the free ones I've found are not very accurate.
>>
>> Why do you need this, anyway?
>>
>
> Just hoping to create a crude map of users to map across the US. I was
> hoping there was some way to resolve a WHOIS type database for IP
> addresses etc. Im not worried about exact locations, just mapping general
> regions for people.
>
Not easily, I'm afraid.
As I said - the IP addresses are notoriously inaccurate. All AOL users
seem to come from Virginia because that's where AOL's internet servers
are. My dialup comes from NY, even though I'm in MD, because that's
where their servers are.
My cable link is at least in the same county, but that's not necessarily
true, even here in the DC area.
Additionally, corporations with several locations might route all of
their internet traffic through a single server (or multiple servers at
one location), accessed by their intranet. So everyone in the company
would look like they're all coming from the same location.
The commercial services try to tell you their data is accurate - and it
is, as far as it can be. But in the end the accuracy is limited by the
companies and ISPs, where they put their servers, and how they route
their traffic.
--
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Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
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