Network-Based Geolocation

How we derive location information from your network connection

How Geolocation Is Derived From Network Headers

Unlike many geolocation services that rely on complex browser APIs, GPS, or invasive tracking methods, we determine your approximate location using only standard network headers. This approach is:

Fast and lightweight (no heavy JavaScript processing)
Privacy-preserving (no browser fingerprinting or tracking)
Accurate enough for network diagnostics (typically city or regional level)
Standard practice in network infrastructure (used by CDNs, security systems)

The Process

Your connection reaches our servers through internet routing
Our servers capture the incoming IP address from network headers
We query the MaxMind GeoIP2 database to translate the IP to location data
Results are returned in HTTP response headers without storing anything

No Special Technology

This isn't proprietary or special technology. It's standard practice used by network engineers for decades. Every CDN, web application firewall, and load balancer in the world does exactly this to route traffic efficiently.

Technical Implementation

MaxMind GeoIP2 Database

We use MaxMind's GeoIP2 database, which contains mappings of IP address ranges to geographic locations. This database is regularly updated and widely considered the industry standard for IP-based geolocation.

Updated weekly with new IP assignments and location data
Covers 99.99% of commercial IP address space
Typical accuracy of 95% at country level, 80% at city level
Provides additional data like ASN, ISP, and organization information

Nginx Server Implementation

Our implementation is done at the Nginx web server level using MaxMind's GeoIP2 module. This approach:

Adds minimal overhead to request processing (microseconds)
Operates entirely at the network layer (invisible to application code)
Provides location data in standard HTTP response headers
Requires no client-side JavaScript or browser APIs

Header Information

When you make a request to our servers, we add these headers to the response:

x-geoip-country

Country code (e.g., GB)

x-geoip-country-name

Full country name

x-geoip-city

City name

x-geoip-region

Region/state name

x-geoip-latitude

Decimal latitude

x-geoip-longitude

Decimal longitude

x-geoip-asn

Autonomous System Number

x-geoip-org

Organization name

Privacy Guaranteed

We don't use cookies, tracking pixels, browser fingerprinting, or any other invasive techniques. Your location is derived solely from your network connection and is never stored or logged.

Accuracy Expectations

Important to understand the limitations of IP-based geolocation:

• Country: ~95-99% accuracy
• Region/State: ~80-90% accuracy
• City: ~60-80% accuracy
• Exact coordinates: ~50-70% accuracy

Factors affecting accuracy include VPNs, proxies, mobile networks, and organizations with distributed IP assignments.

Try It Yourself

See network-based geolocation in action:

Run Connectivity Test

Both IPv4 and IPv6 connections provide geolocation data.