Getting the location from an IP address

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I want to retrieve information like the city, state, and country of a visitor from their IP address, so that I can customize my web page according to their location. Is there a good and reliable way to do this in PHP? I am using JavaScript for client-side scripting, PHP for server-side scripting, and MySQL for the database.

geoip geolocation ip php
20 Answers

A pure Javascript example, using the services of https://geolocation-db.com They provide a JSON and JSONP-callback solution.

No jQuery required!

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Geo City Locator by geolocation-db.com</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div>Country: <span id="country"></span></div>
    <div>State: <span id="state"></span></div>
    <div>City: <span id="city"></span></div>
    <div>Postal: <span id="postal"></span></div>
    <div>Latitude: <span id="latitude"></span></div>
    <div>Longitude: <span id="longitude"></span></div>
    <div>IP address: <span id="ipv4"></span></div>                             
</body>
<script>

    var country = document.getElementById('country');
    var state = document.getElementById('state');
    var city = document.getElementById('city');
    var postal = document.getElementById('postal');
    var latitude = document.getElementById('latitude');
    var longitude = document.getElementById('longitude');
    var ip = document.getElementById('ipv4');

    function callback(data)
    {
        country.innerHTML = data.country_name;
        state.innerHTML = data.state;
        city.innerHTML = data.city;
        postal.innerHTML = data.postal;
        latitude.innerHTML = data.latitude;
        longitude.innerHTML = data.longitude;
        ip.innerHTML = data.IPv4;
    }

    var script = document.createElement('script');
    script.type = 'text/javascript';
    script.src = 'https://geolocation-db.com/json/geoip.php?jsonp=callback';
    var h = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    h.parentNode.insertBefore(script, h);

</script> 
</html>

user_47460870

You need to use an external service... such as http://www.hostip.info/ if you google search for "geo-ip" you can get more results.

The Host-IP API is HTTP based so you can use it either in PHP or JavaScript depending on your needs.

null_254110

Look at the API from hostip.info - it provides lots of information.
Example in PHP:

$data = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/country.php?ip=12.215.42.19");
//$data contains: "US"

$data = file_get_contents("http://api.hostip.info/?ip=12.215.42.19");
//$data contains: XML with country, lat, long, city, etc...

If you trust hostip.info, it seems to be a very useful API.

Isaac_Waller_7642720

I like the free GeoLite City from Maxmind which works for most applications and from which you can upgrade to a paying version if it's not precise enough. There is a PHP API included, as well as for other languages. And if you are running Lighttpd as a webserver, you can even use a module to get the information in the SERVER variable for every visitor if that's what you need.

I should add there is also a free Geolite Country (which would be faster if you don't need to pinpoint the city the IP is from) and Geolite ASN (if you want to know who owns the IP) and that finally all these are downloadable on your own server, are updated every month and are pretty quick to lookup with the provided APIs as they state "thousands of lookups per second".

lpfavreau_359350

I run the service at IPLocate.io, which you can hook into for free with one easy call:

<?php
$res = file_get_contents('https://www.iplocate.io/api/lookup/8.8.8.8');
$res = json_decode($res);

echo $res->country; // United States
echo $res->continent; // North America
echo $res->latitude; // 37.751
echo $res->longitude; // -97.822

var_dump($res);

The $res object will contain your geolocation fields like country, city, etc.

Check out the docs for more information.

user_4009660

Assuming you want to do it yourself and not rely upon other providers, IP2Nation provides a MySQL database of the mappings which are updated as the regional registries change things around.

James_Cape_410440

There 2 broad approaches to perform IP geolocation: one is to download a dataset, host it on your infrastructure and maintain it up-to-date. This requires time and effort, especially if you need to support a high number of requests. Another solution is to use an existing API service that manages all the work for you and more.

There exist many API Geolocation services: Maxmind, Ip2location, Ipstack, IpInfo, etc. Recently, the company I work for has switched to Ipregistry (https://ipregistry.co) and I was involved in the decision and implementation process. Here are some elements you should consider while looking for an IP geolocation API:

  • Is the service accurate? are they using a single source of information?
  • Can they really handle your load?
  • Do they provide consistent and fast response times Worldwide (except if your users are country specific)?
  • What's their pricing model?

Here is an example to get IP geolocation information (but also threat and user agent data using one call):

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$details = json_decode(file_get_contents("https://api.ipregistry.co/{$ip}?key=tryout"));
echo $details->location;

Note: I am not here to promote Ipregistry and say it's the best but I spent a long time analyzing existing solutions and their solution is really promising.

user_117261890
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