IP Geolocation Guide

An IP address is a unique identifier of a device on the Internet. IP geolocation is the data that represents the geographical location of that device. When you have IP geolocation data, you can determine such physical location information as the country, area and city, as well as identify the ISP.

IP geolocation databases are commonly used to determine users’ locations to present them with more personalized promotional content.

For this example, we use iplocation.net to perform IP Lookup on 185.141.165.74.

The IP Lookup tool found the IP record on IPAPI, IP2Location and ipinfo.io databases. The information provided in the brackets next to the source name reveals where the data comes from and when it was updated.

IP geolocation data is not always accurate, and you might notice that, depending on the database that the information comes from, your IP geolocation differs. This is due to the records that exist in these databases.

It is possible to change the IP geolocation record. Of course, you cannot do that yourself, but you can make a request that the database changes it for you.

In some cases, you might need to contact support via email and declare accurate IP geolocation data. In other cases, you might need to fill out a form to provide information. Ultimately, all databases operate differently, and it is up to you to figure out how they change IP records.

Database supervisors might ask traceroutes to your IP to confirm accurate IP geolocation data. Windows OS users can use the Command Prompt to provide this information.

Enter cmd into Windows search to find Command Prompt and click it to open.

Enter the following command:

Instead of your_ip, enter the IP you want to trace.

Let’s use 185.141.165.74 as an example once again.

Note: The traceroute data depends on the location it is performed in. The tool checks connections from one PoP to another, mapping the route.

In the Command Prompt, the first column shows the number of a hop. The second, third and fourth columns show the latency between the hops. The fifth column shows the address of the hop. The * symbol presents hidden latency information between PoPs due to security reasons.

If you have to produce a traceroute, copy the results presented by cmd to a text file. Send this file to the database supervisor, who requested the traceroute information.

Keep in mind that databases might not update their records instantly. In fact, some do it once a week or even once a month. Therefore, if your record has not been updated yet, it might be a matter of time.

And what if databases have updated your record, but a third-party website still has the wrong information? If that is the case, this website is likely to use a database with the wrong record. The only thing you can do is try to figure out which database it is so that you could request a record change.