Three different questions
Who received the address block?
IANA coordinates the global address pools and allocates large blocks to the five Regional Internet Registries. RIRs and local registries then allocate or assign resources to network operators. A registration record therefore describes number-resource administration. It is not a record of the person currently using one address.
Who announces the route?
An Autonomous System Number identifies a routing domain used by network operators. A route-origin observation can associate a prefix with an AS at a particular time. It can change, and anycast can announce the same prefix from several places. That makes ASN and route data useful for network diagnosis, not proof of a user's country or city.
Where does a dataset place it?
Commercial and public geolocation datasets estimate a location using their own signals and update schedules. RIPE NCC explicitly says it is not a geolocation provider; its database may contain user-maintained location attributes, while RIPEstat labels third-party geolocation as such. Agreement between products does not turn an estimate into precise physical evidence.
Four common reasons a location estimate moves
- Mobile networks
- Traffic can exit through a carrier gateway far from the device.
- VPN or proxy
- The visible address belongs to the exit service, not the user's access network.
- Anycast
- One prefix can be announced from multiple sites and routed to a nearby edge.
- Reassignment
- Allocation, routing and commercial datasets can update on different schedules.
Safe product patterns
- Use country-level estimates to preselect a reversible option, not to silently lock it.
- Show a user-visible override and retain the user's explicit preference.
- Record dataset name, edition or observation time, and expected accuracy level.
- Separate network ownership, route origin, and estimated geography in the data model.
- Do not use an IP estimate alone for identity, sanctions, fraud, eligibility, or access decisions.
Why the former database is not here
The historical domain advertised IP-country data and related downloads. No former database, update contract, license, or distribution right transferred. This page is an independently written limitations guide and does not offer those files.
Primary sources
Sources checked 28 August 2026.
- IANA Number Resources — address and ASN coordination and the RIR allocation chain.
- IANA Autonomous System Number registry — current ASN purpose and allocation records.
- RIPE Database geolocation documentation — RIPE NCC's explicit provider boundary.
- RIPEstat data sources — separation of registry, routing and third-party geolocation sources.