RE: IP2Location updates possible?

[Gary Sparkes via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

OK, so it's an illegitimate use of a VPS, just like using it as a VPN concentrator or a file transfer service...., 

Wait, those are legitimate uses, oh....


-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew Petach via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> 
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2026 10:41 PM
To: Gary Sparkes <gary () kisaracorporation com>
Cc: North American Network Operators Group <nanog () lists nanog org>; Matthew Petach <mpetach () netflight com>
Subject: Re: IP2Location updates possible?

On Fri, Oct 23, 2026 at 5:16 PM Gary Sparkes <gary () kisaracorporation com>
wrote:

> Dn42 isn't public internet transit/public internet peering, so is 
> irrelevant to this discussion.
>
> Think of it as a private BGP/networking playground.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dn42
>
> It doesn't provide public internet IP transit, and for 'real' internet 
> access from the virtual dn42 network, you'd need to have some kind of 
> NAT gateways and other such things with legs on both sides.
>
> It operates on RFC1918 space and all services/functionality is 'internal'
> to this virtual network unless dual homed.
>
> Therefore, is entirely irrelevant to this discussion, not providing 
> any public internet type peering/transit or IP space other than what 
> you gateway into it on your own. I've got a bit of experience with 
> ChaosVPN and dn42.
>
> Think of it as a big private VPN network on RFC1918 space, because, 
> essentially, that's all it is - WITH NO PUBLIC BGP PEERING OR ADDRESS 
> SPACE.
>
> It's a learning/experimenting tool that by nature and design CANNOT 
> PROVIDE PUBLIC IP / PEERING / TRANSIT.



I am truly sorry for taking up everyone's time with my clearly embarrassing message.

Clearly, it is impossible to have data move from point A to point Z over private IP space, through multiple intervening 
networks, completely within an overlay network on top of the existing internet without ever touching the real internet 
address space.

It was silly of me to think that if I connected to dn42 in one part of the planet from a server that happened to have 
several hundred TB of local storage, and established the right peering sessions, I could transmit the data from those 
disks to a different host halfway around the planet, also connected to dn42 with the right peering sessions 
established, that wanted to consume that data, all over the private IP overlay network, without ever using public IP 
addresses.

I see now the folly of my thinking, and I now understand that data can only pass across the internet if it is properly 
associated with public IP addresses.

My insane concept of passing data from one host to another via an encrypted overlay network using only RFC1918 
addresses was clearly the result of insufficient sleep from patching and upgrading too many PHP servers this week.

Thank you for setting me straight.

I will stop wasting everyone's time with my clearly impossible scenarios.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding as I learn from the collected wisdom here.

Matt
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