Geofeeds are good — was Re: Publishing BGP communties for your network (Re: What's up with BGP communities?)

[Ca By via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 11:47 PM Abdullah DevRel of IPinfo via NANOG <
nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:

> > Geofeeds are useful because they cut out the middleman in terms of geo
> info, and provide a mechanism for someone to detect and react to that
> change quickly, since a very large use case for these is targeted content
> and advertising.
>
> I work for IPinfo. We use active measurements for IP geolocation as a
> primary source of data. We consider geofeeds as a second-tier source of
> information. We use it as a fallback data source when active measurements
> fail.
>
> The honest reality is that geofeed does not provide verification metadata
> of any form.


The “honest reality”, as you say, is that geolocation firms like yours have
failed to provide reliable data to paying customers for years.


That is why the IETF made geofeeds.

My customers started having outages because geolocation firms have bad
data, and enterprises use that bad data in firewall and cdn rules which
cause outages. For example, geolocation firms provide data that a customer
IP is in xyz country but the firewall rules only allow abc country…

Anyhow, as a person who publishes geofeed data representing 100s of
millions of users, please …everyone… publish and consume first party
geofeed data and do not listen to FUD from people trying to sell you the
same data that we publish for free.


They can be stale, wrong, or false, and maintaining them is a pain for ASN
> providers. Many large telecoms do not even have publicly accessible
> geofeed. For example, AS11260 (Eastlink.ca) does not have a publicly
> accessible geofeed to my knowledge, and I am not sure who to reach out to
> get one. Not all ASNs are going to publish geofeeds, and it is fine.
>
> Providing IP geolocation data has real value, and I do not believe it is
> the ASN or ISP's responsibility to have their data accurately reflected on
> third-party IP geolocation providers like us.
>
> The ideal operation that we have is this: we do IP geolocation based on
> building networks of servers running active measurements, working with
> ASNs, attending conferences and talking with as many ASNs and range
> operators as possible. Shake as many hands as possible. It sounds
> borderline impossible, but honestly, that is the only fair way to operate
> as an IP geolocation provider.
>
> If, in any case, an ASN does not want to help us, that is fine, but that
> does not excuse negligence on our part towards end users. Our
> responsibility is towards end users (the customers of ASNs; internet users)
> and ASNs can be just voluntary partners. The moment an ASN, ISP, or an end
> user has an issue, we have to jump into the conversation and fix the issue.
>
> That is why I am here. There is a mention of the word "geolocation" in the
> NANOG forum, and we have to come here and ask if everything is okay. Do you
> have any issues with us? Can you check your data with us? Can you help us
> fix the issue?
>
> This MO of IP geolocation as a service should be: aggressive outreach. But
> we also have to admit that we are not the only provider, and we are not
> even the largest provider out there. But we do not care, we have to be
> responsible to everyone. We have to back our data.
>
> — Abdullah | DevRel, IPinfo
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/reincoder/
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