A free and super fast GeoIP service.
Because it's a faster and cheaper way to get GeoIP data without paying a fortune on subscriptions.
dig -t txt 188.12.23.34.geo.ipns.cc=> 188.12.23.34.geo.ipns.cc. 86400 IN TXT "|44.1307|10.0218|Fosdinovo|54035||Tuscany|Tuscany|IT|Italy|Europe"| ASN | Long | Lat | City | Postcode | State | County | Region | Country code | Country | Continent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44.1307 | 10.0218 | Fosdinovo | 54035 | Tuscany | Tuscany | IT | Italy | Europe |
This is a POC / public beta so don't use it in production just yet.
Data structure might change.
ASN is WIP I'll be adding this once I get a database.
"State" isn't available in the EU.
Right now some IP addresses in low-density countries/areas will show up as Unknown as pretty much nobody fully covers them on a city / post code level.
If a a query is only partially resolved some missing data may show up as "Unknown", eg:
dig -t txt 145.12.23.34.geo.ipns.cc=> "|52.3824|4.8995|Unknown|0||Unknown|Unknown|NL|The Netherlands|Europe"dig -t txt 66.249.64.100.geo.ipns.cc=> "|37.43|-78.65|GoogleBot||||VA|US|United States|"dig -t txt 136.124.11.10.geo.ipns.cc=> "|37.43|-78.65|Google||||VA|US|United States|"dig -t txt 148.251.54.44.geo.ipns.cc=> "|0|0|BadBot||||Unknown|XX|International|"AI bots that send tens of thousands of requests to your servers eating up your resources so that some rich corporations can make tens of billions of dollars will show up as AIBot
dig -t txt 13.65.138.96.geo.ipns.cc=> "|0|0|AIBot||||Unknown|XX|International|"Almost any application uses a GeoIP service in some way: enhancing UX by pre-filling a signup/purchase/shipping form, logging traffic, geofencing, account security, fighting payment fraud, KYC, recommendation engines... to name just a few.
At some point we all end up integrating some 3rd party GeoIP service that may end up quite expensive as traffic builds up.
Sure, you could add local caching, even local IP databases to lower the bills but at the end of the day you're spending something much more valuable: time.
This service aims to solve all that.
Stop paying two or three figures for commercial services. This service is free.
REST API calls to 3rd party providers can take some good 50-100ms. This service typically replies in under 10ms, your application will become noticeably faster.
First time queries take some 100ms. Cached queries however take under 10ms. Yes, that is correct, less than 10 milliseconds.
Once a query is resolved your DNS resolver keeps it cached for 1 or more days. And if yours won't, other resolvers downstream will. This renders short outages irrelevant.
You send your request as a DNS query. Your resolver and other resolvers upstream either reply to your query in milliseconds or forward the query to our GeoIP service, which is a clever combination of a custom DNS resolver and a set of microservices that search different IP databases in order to return your data.
It's a lot easier than integrating a 3rd party GeoIP service. These come with dependencies to install and you must spend some time putting together code and tests so that it works properly.
Most languages have native support for DNS resolution, in most (civilized) cases without additional dependencies, see code samples.
If this gains positive feedback/traction I will work on scaling for capacity and contract a commercial, higher accuracy GeoIP database.
IPv6 support is also high priority.
Not really, there's not much code to write and the architecture is quite simple, but here are a few ways you can help
You're welcome to send a PR with code samples in your preferred language.
Please open an issue if you have feedback or ideas.
If you have up to date lists of IP addresses please let us know.
If something isn't working properly please let us know
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Code samples license: WTFPL