Posted by -Lost on 06/07/07 17:10

Toby A Inkster wrote:
> -Lost wrote:
>
>> MindMax is awesome! However, it only offers Country and City lookups.
>
> Anything more specific would be very error-prone. The fact is, IP
> addresses are often being re-assigned; or an organisation will keep
> a block of IP addresses, but move geographically. It's miraculous
> that MaxMind manages to keep their databases as up-to-date as they
> do.

Well, I am sure this comes into play when we talk about latitude,
longitude, ISP, et cetera. Dealing only with the country is of little
consequence. I am not sure about city though, that may fall into the
trap you mention.

Were those items specifically why you say anything more specific would
be error-prone?

Or were there other reasons? I am curious.

In fact. In your opinion is there anything aside from country lookups
that can be trusted? Even if implemented on a small scale (as in not
"more specific" as you mentioned)?

> There aren't any decent open databases of this information. I imagine that
> this is because MaxMind's free offerings are of sufficient quality to
> deter anyone from bothering to invest the significant amount of work it
> would take to develop a freely-available competitor.

I surmised that very thing. I wonder how daunting of a task creating
something of comparable worth in an open-source venture would be?

Especially if done in one's free time, as that is all I have to offer to
such a project.

In case you think, "Well, that is not very bright. MaxMind's offerings
are outstanding currently."

To that I say, "True! But one cannot edit a binary distribution and
mark errors or additions."

Thanks for your time Mr. Inkster.

--
-Lost
Remove the extra words to reply by e-mail. Don't e-mail me. I am
kidding. No I am not.

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