IP belongs to Latvia, but Location is another

[Takhir]

I see statistics on my web-site and suddenly noticed, that smb with IP = 62.85.112.100 visited my site. Ok. This IP belongs to Latvia's provider (Europe), but Location is Ukraine.

How it might happen???

[webado]

Check the ip in www.whois.sc/ipaddress - whatever country you see there will apply when looking up the ISP.

IP addresses don't stop at borders. The same ISP can provide IP addresses to users over a large area, who may be in separate countries. The geo location of the IP is as the ISP has provide to geo databases - it usually goes by the ISP's datacenter location.

If you told me the user is in Greenland but it's reported as New Zeeland, and he's not using some proxy to hide his location, then I'd say the geo database is wrong, and that's ISP's responsibility to maintain.

[webado]

http://whois.domaintools.com/62.85.112.100

Do you see country=LV somewhere?

Please don't start several threads on the same topic.

[Takhir]

Yes, I followed your link and saw Latvia (under dotted line here):

Record Type: IP Address
Cached Whois: 2006-08-15
IP Location: Ukraine Ukraine - Avtonomna Respublika Krym - Alushta - Datori Un Datortikli Ltd
Blacklist Status: Clear

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Whois Record

inetnum: 62.85.112.0 - 62.85.113.255
netname: DUND-NET
descr: "Datori un Datortikli" LTD
country: LV
admin-c: MC8956-RIPE
tech-c: MLH4-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: AS8724-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

role: Microlink Latvia HostMaster
address: Microlink Latvia Ltd
address: 13 Skanstas Str.
address: Riga LV-1013
address: Latvia
phone: +371 7020000
fax-no: +371 7777701
remarks: trouble: Information: http://www.microlink.lv/
remarks: trouble: Questions -- mailto:Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source
remarks: trouble: Abuse reports -- mailto:Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source
admin-c: AA1001-RIPE
tech-c: AM4151-RIPE
tech-c: AA1001-RIPE
tech-c: AZ1072-RIPE
nic-hdl: MLH4-RIPE
mnt-by: AS8724-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
abuse-mailbox: Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source

person: Maris Cukurs
address: Riga
phone: +371-7272248
phone: +371-9506469
nic-hdl: MC8956-RIPE
mnt-by: AS8724-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

Is that OK????

[webado]

Sure, it's normal.

You cannot know the physical location of your visitor, only the physical location of the ISP datacenter to which the IP address is connected.

The ISP is listed as being in Ukraine and that's what first comes out of a search. It can get messy with ISPs operating in many different countries, especially in Europe.
This report says the IP is associated with an Ukraine location, but the ISP's head office claims to be in Latvia. Who knows which it is.

[Takhir]

Sorry, but what in my case: where is the really that user that logged into my site? In Latvia, as shows IP address or in Ukraine, as shows Location?

Can it be the next way: the user used laptop with WiFi connection in Latvia and then moved to Ukraine with it with all networks settings saved inside, then connected to Internet there and thus I see his Latvan's IPS IP?

The probability that the user now is in Ukraine is 80%, but I'd like to know how it happens that he is defined as from Ukraine with Latvian IP.....

[webado]

Different IP, differnt ISP it will show probably a different thing.

I am in Montreal, Quebec and my previous ISP would often give me an IP that was associated with a Sherbrooke, Quebec datancenter. Other times it wasn't even in the same province, it would be a datacenter from Ontario. To anybody trying to "track" me that would seem to indicate I've moved around. But it's just the IP address which resolves to a different datacenter which has a different location.

It wouldn't help to have any aprticualr networks settings, it all depends which ISP and thus IP he connects to. If I take my wi-fi latop to Europe I won't be connecting to any ISP from Montreal and certanly not to my regular one.

[Takhir]

Christina, you know, that I saw others users, that were associated with the same ISP, that I posted above. And their country (Latvia) has been defined correctly, but not now.
Is there any correct method to determine the LOCATION of the user logged in? It doesn't matter which IP and IPS he uses, the priority is location.

[webado]

No, it's whatever comes form the lookup.

Some IP's may map to one country, some other to another country. It may well be the same ISP, but different IP blocks.

As I said, the ISP's are responsible for maintaining the geo information for all their blocks of IP addresses. But this is a very changeable situation, like telephone numbers - the phone book doesn't change as often as people change their addresses.

Again, I repeat, it's the location of the datacenter providing that IP, not of the visitor.