Do our IPtoCountry MasterServer Providers need an update?

[Que]

was reading this post here: https://unrealadmin.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32018
and realized that perhaps our databases need updating.

The GeoIP site is long since gone , where else would we go to get updated info?

[Barbie]

Of course offering the service IPToCountry is not enough; the underlying database should be updated from time to time. If I would provide such, I'd updated it all few months or so.
I didn't find a possibility to get the version or creation date of a database; I'm afraid there is no such information inside the database itself. Does anyone know an IP addresse which country assignment has changed recently? That could be a possibility to find out if a provider uses an outdated database.

[Eternity]

"Maxmind" could be considered as one of the alternatives, it provides GeoIP databases (commercial and free versions). But IPToCountry code has to be modified to support their database format.
Probably, it is not the best choice to the moment. Long ago in past it was quite good GeoIP database provider.

[sektor2111]

As far as I know MaxMind has stopped working on those databases - IpToCountry needed some database provided there. As result: YES, updates are needed but I'm afraid that nobody will provide this stuff unless you find alternate methods or other type of detection.

I have to admit that last time IpToCountry was working better for some reasons but... without an up-to-date database, query results are borked.

[Eternity]

IpToCountry needed some database provided there.

Now i see... And this explains why that database is not being updated anymore.

As far as I know MaxMind has stopped working on those databases

Yes. IIRC, their last GeoIPCountryWhois database release was in March 2018.
Now there are specific limitations and requirements, and a database has another format...

It still could be used, but need time to write new script for that current database format, or to wait until authors of that original PHP script update it.
5+ years outdated database should motivate somebody to fix it, sooner or later...

[Que]

It still could be used, but need time to write new script for that current database format, or to wait until authors of that original PHP script update it.
5+ years outdated database should motivate somebody to fix it, sooner or later...

the Guys who made the script have long gone.. is upto the remaining coders (very few) to come up with something.
currently we are working on something in SSB which allows us to manually set user's CountryFlags/CountryName based on the first 2 octets of their IP Addresses
this is a somewhat workaround for outdated players Country's/Flags.

[Eternity]

There are also 3-rd party services that provide similar API, such as hostip.info or ipapi.co, it just requires a minor change in a currently used IpToCoutnry UC script, so could be used as a quick/temporal solution. But in this case another kind of obstacles may appear...

[sektor2111]

But in this case another kind of obstacles may appear...

Already got them... I went to setup a server for IpToCountry support - in the same machine set as VDS. And then ? And them because all Web related access to the host is HTTPS and not just HTTP, IpToCountry did not work.

[Barbie]

all Web related access to the host is HTTPS and not just HTTP, IpToCountry did not work.

If you have root access, you can configure the web server accordingly.

[sektor2111]

Nope I don't have, and then... if database is outdated, all next connected moves are useless.

[Hitman]

Follows, since this need an update if someone can figure it out..

[Eternity]

Some useful info and the links: https://unrealadmin.org/forums/showpost.php?p=173498

[sektor2111]

This post deserve a sticky stamp.

Edit: Nah... False alarm. All it does to me it's to point "Unknown" (in Browser) while prior version returns a country - such as "9.9.9.9" means "France" not "Unknown".

[Eternity]

I have just tested iptocountry16.php (edited the way suggested there) with these updated .dat and .inc files, it works as expected - returns less incorrect results than with old database. For 9.9.9.9 it returns "9.9.9.9:dns9.quad9.net:UNITED STATES:USA:usroot".

[Hitman]

This old mod needs an update, would be great if some smart guy can fix it.