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Originally Posted by Barron
Thanks! Thats just what I was looking for. 
Now to go turn a profit with it. |
Maxmind's free country database is really only useful for testing.. You can grab the latest IP allocations each day direct from the four registries that handle them (ARIN, RIPE, APNIC and LACNIC) and create a close to perfect country database yourself.
This place also provides a more up to date country database than maxmind.. It's accurate enough for live use imho, but it's usually a week out of date most of the time too.
http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/node/view/6
the City location databases rely on information MaxMind (or whoever is selling it) put together themselves. They create maps of individual ISP routers and IP useage, and even use non web-based info like ISP licence applications that might identify where particular IPs blocks will be restricted to. I'd say you pay for what you get when it comes to buying a database for this level of targetting.
A regional database that will lock down the IP to a state or province accurately is a better basis to plan from, if you are thinking of building a geo-application from the ground up imho... much more reliable.
side note: If you want to try to block free email account usage for site submitters... MaxMind sell a database of identified free email providers too.. think it's about 15 bucks plus $3/mth for updates.
and this is just too cool to describe.. free creditcard fraud checker.. that's worth checking out if only to see the scope of what you can do with a database of IP numbers and a little thought
http://www.maxmind.com/app/ccv