GeoIP2 Release Notes

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report March 2024

March 18, 2024

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (March 2024)

GeoIP2 and GeoLite2 databases incorporate GeoNames geographical data, which is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Monthly updates to GeoNames data are incorporated into our databases as we refresh them. Above you will find a CSV report of these changes as they apply to English place names for the month of March as they relate to the following fields:

  • geoname_id
  • country_name
  • country_code
  • city_name
  • subdivision_1_iso_code
  • subdivision_2_iso_code

Note that the values for the old_ and new_ columns for a given field only differ for the field defined in the diff_in column.

* In this month's update a large number of cities in Israel have improved place names.

In 2020, Norway merged a number of their subdivisions, but this proved unpopular and they have now unmerged these subdivisions. We have used the ISO subdivision codes for these subdivisions from before the 2020 change. The ISO subdivision codes we will be using for these subdivisions are reflected in this diff report.

API policies are now permanently enforced

March 13, 2024

To improve our server infrastructure and allow for better performance and efficiency, our API policies are now being permanently enforced as of March 13, 2024.

What are the policies?

  • MaxMind only accepts API and database download requests sent with the more secure HTTPS protocol.
  • MaxMind only accepts API and database download requests that are sent to the appropriate hostname as documented in the integration instructions on our Developer Portal (see direct links below).

What do I need to do? If you download GeoIP or GeoLite databases and you use an up to date version of our geoipupdate program, you do not need to take any action.

If you are using web services, or if you do direct downloads of GeoIP or GeoLite databases, you should ensure that you are using the correct hostname for your API requests, and that you are using HTTPS. Failure to do so will result in web service or database download requests failing.

You can view the appropriate URIs for GeoIP and GeoLite services and downloads on our Developer Portal using the links below:

Please note: This enforcement also affects minFraud API requests. If you are also a minFraud user, see our minFraud release note on this issue.

API policies - temporary enforcement on February 7, 2024

January 25, 2024

To improve our server infrastructure and allow for better performance and efficiency, MaxMind will begin enforcing our policies around our API and database download requests March 13, 2024. To help customers get ready for this change, we will have a planned, temporary enforcement of these policies on February 7, 2024.

What are the policies?

  • MaxMind will only accept API and database download requests sent with the more secure HTTPS protocol.
  • MaxMind will only accept API and database download requests that are sent to the appropriate hostname as documented in the integration instructions on our Developer Portal (see direct links below).

What do I need to do? If you download GeoIP or GeoLite databases and you use an up to date version of our geoipupdate program, you do not need to take any action.

If you are using web services, or if you do direct downloads of GeoIP or GeoLite databases, you should ensure that you are using the correct hostname for your API requests, and that you are using HTTPS, prior to February 7, 2024.

If you have not made the requested changes before Wednesday, February 7, 2024, you might experience a period where web service or database download requests fail.

You can view the appropriate URIs for GeoIP and GeoLite services and downloads on our Developer Portal using the links below:

Please note: This enforcement will also affect minFraud API requests. If you are also a minFraud user, see our minFraud release note on this issue..

Presigned URLs for database downloads

January 17, 2024

We will begin using R2 presigned URLs for all database downloads in order to increase the security and reliability of our services. Database download links and integration methods will not be changing.

What do I need to do?

MaxMind users who download databases should make sure that their HTTP client follows redirects and there are no proxy or firewall settings that would block requests to the host we are redirecting to. We will redirect requests using HTTPS on the following hostname:

  • mm-prod-geoip-databases.a2649acb697e2c09b632799562c076f2.r2.cloudflarestorage.com

If you use a direct-download method (most CSV downloaders):

The permalinks for downloading databases will not be changing. You will be redirected from those permalinks to the R2 presigned URLs.

If you use geoipupdate (most MMDB downloaders):

We will be releasing a new major version that uses redirecting links. You can test your server configuration by updating to this new major version in a controlled environment before updating your version on production.

If you download directly from the account portal:

Check your firewall and browser security settings if you get errors when trying to download.

If you need more help:

Review our documentation on how to update and download databases.

Anycast flag available for CSV format databases

January 17, 2024

The Anycast data point is now available in all CVS format databases—and, as announced in a prior release note, it’s also available in all GeoIP web services and all MMDB format databases.

In most cases, the addition of a new field to CSV databases should be a non-breaking change, but we recommend checking your integration to make sure that it can accommodate the addition of new fields.

The field is present in the following GeoIP databases:

  • GeoIP Country database
  • GeoIP City database
  • GeoIP Enterprise database

GeoLite databases

The Anycast field has also been added to the CSV version of GeoLite geolocation databases, but the new field is intentionally blank. This allows the GeoIP databases to continue to be drop-in replacements for GeoLite databases, so that it's easy to upgrade.

The field is present in the following GeoLite databases:

  • GeoLite Country database
  • GeoLite City database

Confirming your integration allows for new data points

The new field has been added to the Blocks CSV files: {GeoIP2,GeoLite2}-{Enterprise,City,Country}-Blocks-IPv4.csv and {GeoIP2,GeoLite2}-{Enterprise,City,Country}-Blocks-IPv6.csv

The new field name, is_anycast, has been added to the right of existing fields and the cell will either contain 1 (if the network is an Anycast network) or be blank (if it is not). The overwhelming majority of networks are not Anycast, and so this field will be blank in most cases.

If you're not sure whether you're using the MMDB format, the CSV format, or both, you can learn how to check your account's database download history to determine whether you are downloading CSV files.

Please use the following example CSV files to test your integration:

We have also updated our tutorials on importing GeoIP databases. Please see relevant links below:

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report January 2024

January 8, 2024

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (January 2024)

GeoIP2 and GeoLite2 databases incorporate GeoNames geographical data, which is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Monthly updates to GeoNames data are incorporated into our databases as we refresh them. Above you will find a CSV report of these changes as they apply to English place names for the month of January as they relate to the following fields:

  • geoname_id
  • country_name
  • country_code
  • city_name
  • subdivision_1_iso_code
  • subdivision_2_iso_code

Note that the values for the old_ and new_ columns for a given field only differ for the field defined in the diff_in column.

* In this month's update a large number of cities in Argentina have improved place names.

This page was last updated on March 25, 2024.