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

[Abdullah DevRel of IPinfo via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

Hi,

> Unfortunately, more often than not that information is ignored and instead all of our IPs show up as coming from a 
> small town 20 miles from  our main customer concentration (I have no idea why the GeoIP people chose that town...), 
> or from Chicago (perhaps because they have test  servers in Chicago?).

The whole reason I am here is because of this. Please check your data with us. If it is incorrect, let us know, please. 
Active measurement by design should be better than geofeed, but if it is not due to network architecture or some 
reason, you need to tell us. We will investigate.

> They should only default to the proprietary system if there is evidence of subterfuge on the part of the provider.  
> Doing otherwise is bound to lead to inaccurate information.

Our active measurement system is our primary source of information that also serves as the verification method. This 
system is dynamic, processing many dozens of sources of data. If, in any scenario, our active measurement system cannot 
produce accurate data, we will use geofeed. It is a score-based model for selecting the location hint.

Smaller ISPs should never feel like we ignore their reporting. If we are wrong, just flag it; we will work out a 
solution. We will honor your geofeed reporting. But inherently, the system is designed for evidence-based accuracy.

The scenario you have described. You may not be right for your ranges, but please check out your data with us.

It is not your responsibility, nor the media companies' responsibility, to ensure that the data is accurate. We operate 
under the assumption that data accuracy is our responsibility. Moreover, we are public about which companies use our 
data for which services. So, end users can find us and talk to us directly. The dozens of streaming companies and TV 
channels that use our data, you will not hear a single complaint from them publicly, because our data is so accurate we 
are practically invisible to end-users.

Just check out my Cloudflare community responses, please: 
https://community.cloudflare.com/search?q=ipinfo%20order%3Alatest 

It is mostly about us providing explanations there. And please remember, Cloudflare end-users are not paying customers 
for us. We do it, because it is our data they are impacted by. Our existence in communities and forums is about 
accountability.

In fact, check out OPNsense or any major open-source software that uses our data. We provide data for free to support 
the open-source initiatives and public access to data, but that does not excuse us in any way. We are absolutely 
accountable for our data, and we stand by it.

Again, it is not you, as an ISP, to be blamed for bad IP geolocation data. Absolutely not. It is the responsibility of 
the IP geolocation data provider for bad data. But not all companies use our data. We are one of the top providers of 
IP geolocation data, but we are not the only provider of it. 

It is an industry issue that bad IP geolocation exists, and ISPs receive complaints and are not heard by companies and 
IP geolocation providers. THIS IS NOT THE CASE WITH IPINFO. We are always there to listen and help.

— Abdullah | DevRel, IPinfo
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