IP based Geolocation and Whois database, by Vivek Nigam. A presentation given at APRICOT 2016’s IP-based Geolocation issues session on 25 February 2016.

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IP based Geolocation and
Whois database
Vivek Nigam
vivek@apnic.net

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Contents
• Geolocation issues reported by members
• Geographical attributes in Whois
• What you need to know?
• APNIC “geohelp” document
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Sources of IP geolocation data
• Routing system
• Mobile device GPS
• Other ISP data
• Other data mining
• IP address Registry data
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IP geolocation complaints are on the rise
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Incorrect IP geolocation
“When we are downloading from content distribution
networks, it is determining that our location is from Australia,
in fact, speedtest.net thinks we are in Adelaide.
Is there a way to resolve this geolocation issue so we appear
from Manila.”
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Accuracy of IP geolocation
“We had noticed that the Geolocation displayed on
www.ip2location.com (as well as other sites) mentioned
Burwood, New South Wales. However this should actually be
Burwood East, Victoria.
I was wondering what the process to have that changed
would be?”
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No IP geolocation
“We're having issues with our address space on the Google
Play store. It seems the range location can't be identified.
Can you advise me if there's anything missing from the
database that could be causing this?”
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IP geolocation based filtering
“We use the IP addresses to send emails (on behalf of our
customers) and some recipients reject the emails simply
because they have come from a NZ IP address.
We'd like to change the address in the WHOIS to a USA
address. Can we do that?”
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IP geolocation based filtering
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Customer complaints
“Our users are constantly reporting geolocation issues with
Gumtree and Sony PSN sites.
Due to this we have to tell the users to keep on turning off /
on their router to get an IP address NOT in affected the 43
range.”
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Geographical attributes in Whois
• Attributes of interest
– Country:
– Geoloc:
– Descr:
• Conventions may not be clear
– APNIC delegations: Objects do have consistent meaning
– Other delegations: No enforcement of meaning
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inet6num objects
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Public stats file
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ftp://ftp.apnic.net/public/stats/apnic/delegated-apnic-latest

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What you need to know?
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APNIC delegations
• For records maintained by APNIC, we record the economy
(ISO-3166) where your organization is registered.
– Portable inetnum and inet6num objects
– autnum and person objects
– Country: attribute only
– Geoloc: not used for delegations to members
• Same data exported to public stats file
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Member delegations
• Members can register customer assignments to indicate
the location where their network is deployed
– Country: might indicate the economy where the block is used
– Geoloc: might give lat/long where the block is used
• APNIC does not enforce convention or check correctness
– These attributes are therefore not reliable
– They could be deliberately misleading
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Case Study
Effects on Geolocation after IP address
transfers
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Case Study
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June 2015 Resources transferred from Australian member
to New Zealand member
Member reported their IP geolocation changed
from Australia to New Zealand
Identified the Geolocation provider was using
country attribute of APNIC delegation
15 Oct 2015
26 Oct 2015

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Observations
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• Confusion about what APNIC registry data is used for
geolocation, if any.
• How frequently is this data updated by geoloc providers
• Impact of geoloc attribute. Is it widely used?
• APNIC is often asked for advice and assistance

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APNIC “geohelp” document
• Scope
– Research on how IP address based geolocation information is
gathered and consumed, and by whom
– Understand how APNIC data is used in building geolocation
information
• Objective
– Develop a clear guidance to those seeking APNIC help with
geolocation
– Provide support in resolving problems
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Questions?
• What is APNIC’s responsibility?
• What is APNIC member’s responsibility?
• What’s next?
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Feedback or Suggestions?