NAME

Geo::IP - Look up country by IP Address

SYNOPSIS

  use Geo::IP;

  my $gi = Geo::IP->new(GEOIP_STANDARD);

  # look up IP address '65.15.30.247'
  # returns undef if country is unallocated, or not defined in our database
  my $country = $gi->country_code_by_addr('65.15.30.247');
  $country = $gi->country_code_by_name('yahoo.com');
  # $country is equal to "US"

DESCRIPTION

This module uses a file based database. This database simply contains IP blocks as keys, and countries as values. This database should be more complete and accurate than reverse DNS lookups.

This module can be used to automatically select the geographically closest mirror, to analyze your web server logs to determine the countries of your visiters, for credit card fraud detection, and for software export controls.

IP ADDRESS TO COUNTRY DATABASES

Free monthly updates to the database are available from

  http://www.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/

This free database is similar to the database contained in IP::Country, as well as many paid databases. It uses ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, and LACNIC whois to obtain the IP->Country mappings.

If you require greater accuracy, MaxMind offers a Premium database on a paid subscription basis. Also included with this is a service that updates your database automatically each month, by running a program called geoipupdate included with the C API from a cronjob.

CLASS METHODS

$gi = Geo::IP->new( $flags );

Constructs a new Geo::IP object with the default database located inside your system's datadir, typically /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat.

Flags can be set to either GEOIP_STANDARD, or for faster performance (at a cost of using more memory), GEOIP_MEMORY_CACHE. When using memory cache you can force a reload if the file is updated by setting GEOIP_CHECK_CACHE.

$gi = Geo::IP->open( $database_filename, $flags );

Constructs a new Geo::IP object with the database located at $database_filename.

OBJECT METHODS

$code = $gi->country_code_by_addr( $ipaddr );

Returns the ISO 3166 country code for an IP address.

$code = $gi->country_code_by_name( $ipname );

Returns the ISO 3166 country code for a hostname.

$code = $gi->country_code3_by_addr( $ipaddr );

Returns the 3 letter country code for an IP address.

$code = $gi->country_code3_by_name( $ipname );

Returns the 3 letter country code for a hostname.

$name = $gi->country_name_by_addr( $ipaddr );

Returns the full country name for an IP address.

$name = $gi->country_name_by_name( $ipname );

Returns the full country name for a hostname.

$name = $gi->record_by_addr( $ipaddr );

Returns a Geo::IP::Record object containing city location for an IP address.

$name = $gi->record_by_name( $ipname );

Returns a Geo::IP::Record object containing city location for a hostname.

MAILING LISTS AND CVS

Are available from SourceForge, see http://sourceforge.net/projects/geoip/

VERSION

1.21

SEE ALSO

Geo::IP::Record

AUTHOR

Copyright (c) 2003, MaxMind LLC

All rights reserved. This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.