GeoIP Release Notes - 2023 Archive

Due to the December holidays, we will not be providing database updates for certain databases on Tuesday, December 26. The following GeoIP and GeoLite databases will not have their regularly scheduled updates:

• GeoIP Country
• GeoIP City
• GeoIP Connection Type
• GeoIP ISP
• GeoIP Domain Name
• GeoIP Enterprise
• GeoLite Country
• GeoLite City
• GeoLite ASN

The GeoIP Anonymous IP database will continue to update as scheduled.

We will resume our regular update schedule beginning on Friday, December 29.

The Anycast data point is now available in all GeoIP web services and all MMDB format databases. This includes GeoIP Country, GeoIP City, and GeoIP Enterprise.

For GeoIP web services and databases using the MMDB format, this is a non-breaking change. However, you may need to update to the latest version of your API to see the Anycast flag.

For CSV databases (including GeoLite Country and City CSV databases), the Anycast flag will be released in the first database update after January 17, 2024. In most cases, this should also be a non-breaking change if your integration can accommodate the addition of new fields. As a best practice, we recommend checking your integration to confirm.

For more details, including what information the Anycast field will contain, please read our previous release note on the Anycast flag.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (December 2023)

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 December 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 there are a larger than usual number of changes, including:

• change of the country_name from Turkey to Türkiye
• a number of Vietnamese locations updated to include non-ASCII characters (for example, Tinh Lam GJong is now Lâm Đồng Province)
• a large number of locations in Brazil and India have updated geoname_ids

In the Friday, December 8 release of our ISP data, we will be changing the name of ‘Suddenlink’, an American telecommunications subsidiary of Altice USA, to ‘Optimum’ to reflect Suddenlink’s rebrand to Optimum.

ISP data in the following products and services will be updated:

• GeoIP City Plus and Insights web services
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• GeoIP ISP database

We’re adding a flag to identify Anycast networks in our GeoIP geolocation databases to help identify instances where we might not provide geolocation for a particular IP address due to Anycast routing.

Most home and office networks rely on Unicast routing, where every node on the network is assigned a unique IP address. Anycast routing allows multiple servers to share the same IP address.

GeoIP web services

The Anycast flag will be available in all GeoIP web services by the end of December. For GeoIP web service users this will be a non-breaking change.

We will post a new release note once the Anycast data point is available.

GeoIP databases

The Anycast flag will have a staggered release for GeoIP geolocation database users. The Anycast flag will be released for MMDB users by the end of December, at the same that the flag is available in the GeoIP web services. The flag is a non-breaking change for MMDB format database users.

The Anycast flag will be released in CSV format databases in mid-January, 2024. In most cases, the addition of a new field to CSV databases should also be a non-breaking change, but you should check your integration to make sure that it can accommodate the addition of new fields.

The field will be present in the following GeoIP databases:

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

GeoLite databases

The Anycast field will also be added to the CSV version of GeoLite geolocation databases, but the new field will be blank. This will allow the GeoIP databases to continue to be drop in replacements for GeoLite databases, so that it’s easy to upgrade. The field will be present in the following GeoLite databases:

• GeoLite Country database
• GeoLite City database

Preparing for updated CSV format databases

MMDB format databases will be able to access the new data through our client APIs. If you are a CSV user, the following details may be helpful in preparing your integration for the new data.

• 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 on our Knowledge Base.

• The new field will be 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 will be is_anycast, will be 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.

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

• GeoIP2-Enterprise-CSV_Example-is_anycast.zip
• GeoIP2-City-CSV_Example-is_anycast.zip
• GeoIP2-Country-CSV_Example-is_anycast.zip

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

• Importing to PostgreSQL
• Importing to MySQL

Over the past two weeks, we have introduced improved postal code resolution for all GeoIP products and services with city-level data, especially for large cities. GeoIP customers should see more diverse postal codes for IP addresses geolocated to large cities. This improvement impacts the following products and services:

• GeoIP City Plus and Insights web services
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• GeoIP City database

In addition, we have improved the geolocation accuracy at the city and postal levels for IPv6 networks in our GeoIP web services. This improvement impacts the following services:

• GeoIP City Plus and Insights web services

In the Friday, December 1 release of our ISP data, we will be changing the name of KDDI, a large Japanese ISP, to au one net because KDDI offers its services under the au one net brand name.

ISP data in the following products and services will be updated:

• GeoIP City Plus and Insights web services
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• GeoIP ISP database

We are releasing a bug fix to our static IP scoring system today.

Previously we were returning higher static IP scores for cellular IPv6 addresses when the networks were actually more dynamic.

GeoIP Insights customers will see the static IP score for cellular IPv6 addresses reduce.

Learn more about static IP scores in GeoIP on our Knowledge Base.

We are issuing an off-schedule release of our geolocation databases in order to update the country-level geolocation for for a number of networks associated with the Starlink satellite ISP and some additional minor data corrections.

Please download the databases released later today to get the most up to date geolocation information.

This impacts the following databases:

• GeoIP Country database

• GeoIP City database

• GeoIP Enterprise database

• GeoLite Country database

• GeoLite City database

GeoIP web service users will receive this update automatically.

Beginning this week, you will see more English place names in GeoIP products and services that contain non-ASCII characters, especially for small villages and towns. Non-ASCII characters may contain diacritics, accents and other marks, for example:

You may see English names with non-ASCII characters in all products and services that contain geolocation data, including:

• GeoIP Insights, City Plus, and Country web services
• GeoIP Enterprise, City, and Country databases
• minFraud Insights and Factors web services
• GeoLite City and Country web services
• GeoLite City and Country databases

Beginning Friday, October 20, Cloudflare WARP will be identified as a consumer privacy network in our data.

Consumer privacy networks are VPNs managed by tech companies. Access to these networks is tied to a user account that is usually tied to other products and services more closely associated with the consumer’s real identity. These networks are not necessarily used for the kinds of malicious activity that VPNs, residential proxies, and other anonymizing networks are used for.

Consumer privacy networks are identified in our user type data with the value consumer_privacy_network, and can be identified by name in our ISP data. This data can be accessed in the following MaxMind products and services:

User Type Data:

• GeoIP Insights web service
• GeoIP Enterprise database

ISP Data:

• GeoIP Insights web service
• GeoIP City Plus web service
• GeoIP ISP database
• GeoIP Enterprise database

Learn more about Cloudflare WARP on Cloudflare’s website.

Learn more about consumer privacy networks on our Knowledge Base.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (October 2023)

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 for the month of October 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 there are changes to a number of geoname IDs for locations in Brazil.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (September 2023)

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 for the month of September 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.

* Please note: Although we do not include information about time_zone in our monthly Diff Reports, GeoNames is updating the time zones for a number of locations in Ukraine. These updates will be reflected in our time_zone data, which is present in all of our IP geolocation databases and web services.

Effective Tuesday August 29, 2023 we will be adding a new connection type value, Satellite, which will identify satellite internet providers such as Starlink, Viasat, and Hughes. Satellite connections typically have higher latency than cable/DSL connections.

The Satellite connection type value will appear in the following databases:

• GeoIP Connection Type database
• GeoIP Enterprise database

Users of the following client APIs will need to update their API to the latest version to avoid breaking changes with the new value:

• Update Java API to version 4.1.0
• Update Node API to version 4.2.0

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 in March 2024. To help customers get ready for this change, we will have a planned, temporary enforcement of these policies on October 17, 2023.

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 October 17, 2023. You can view the appropriate URIs for GeoIP and GeoLite services and downloads on our Developer Portal using the links below:

• GeoIP Country, City Plus, and Insights web services
• GeoIP and GeoLite database downloads
• GeoIP Legacy web services
• GeoLite web services

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

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (August 2023)

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 for the month of August 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.

* A number of new features with improved names were added to Brazil in this month’s update.

Starting with tomorrow’s release we will begin resolving IPs that currently return the neighborhood of Flushing (Queens, NY) to the corresponding borough of Queens in the city name field.

For more granular place identification (such as neighborhood), we recommend using the postal code where provided.

On Tuesday August 29, 2023 we will be adding a new connection type value, Satellite, which will identify satellite internet providers such as Starlink, Viasat, and Hughes. Satellite connections typically have higher latency than cable/DSL connections.

The Satellite connection type value will appear in the following databases:

• GeoIP Connection Type database
• GeoIP Enterprise database

Users of the following client APIs will need to update their API to the latest version to avoid breaking changes with the new value:

• Update Java API to version 4.1.0
• Update Node API to version 4.2.0

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (July 2023)

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 for the month of July 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.

* This month’s update contains a large number of updated names for cities in Vietnam.

Beginning this Friday, June 16, we will update the GeoIP Domain Name databases twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays (instead of monthly). We made this change so that data corrections and updates can be deployed more quickly.

If you would like to take advantage of these more frequent updates, you will have to update the schedule of your GeoIP database downloads. You can find documentation on updating your GeoIP databases on our developer’s site.

On June 6, we announced that more networks would be mapped to London boroughs beginning on Friday, June 9.

This change has been delayed. It should be present in our products and services beginning on Friday, June 16.

In addition, for networks in the greater London area we will be returning the name of the town for city-level name data instead of the borough. The borough will be populated in the second level subdivision.

For example, a network that maps to the Walthamstow town will return Walthamstow for the city_name, and Walthamstow Forest for the second level subdivision.

We are aware of an issue that caused a delay to the GeoIP Anonymous IP database release. The database was not released on Friday, June 9 through Sunday, June 11.

The issue has been corrected, and the database will be released today, Monday, June 12, and going forward, as normal.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (June 2023)

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 for the month of June 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.

* This month’s update contains a large number of updated names for cities in India.

When a network geolocates to London, we will often return the borough for the city, rather than returning London. Beginning this Friday, June 9, we will be mapping more networks to London boroughs.

This change will apply to all products and services with city-level geolocation data:

• GeoIP City database
• GeoIP City Plus web service
• GeoIP Insights web service
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• minFraud Insights web service
• minFraud Factors web service
• GeoLite City web service
• GeoLite City database

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (May 2023)

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 for the month of May 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.

We are changing the release schedule for our GeoIP Domain database.

The next update of the GeoIP Domain database will release on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Going forward, the GeoIP Domain database will be released on the first Tuesday of each month.

Previously, the GeoIP Domain database was updated every fourth Tuesday.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (April 2023)

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 for the month of April 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.

We are aware of an issue in which our geolocation products and services are not returning correct city-level data for IP addresses located in Portugal.

The issue was introduced in our release of GeoIP databases last Friday, March 17. The issue has been fixed and will be corrected in the next release of our GeoIP databases, scheduled for Tuesday, March 21.

The following products and services are affected:

• GeoIP City database
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• GeoLite City database
• GeoIP City Plus web service
• GeoIP Insights web service

Web service customers will see the corrected data right away. Database customers should download the latest update to our databases to get access to corrected data.

We are making changes to the format of our license keys:

• New license keys will be longer, with a six character prefix.
• Beginning on March 27, 2023, we will no longer be issuing unhashed license keys for use with legacy versions of our GeoIP Update program (any version prior to v3.1.1).

For customers using our REST API, Client APIs or version 3.1.1 and higher of our GeoIP Update program:

No action is required. Existing license keys will still be valid and will continue to function normally.

New license keys will have the following changes:

• The character set is changing from [a-zA-Z0-9] to [a-zA-Z0-9_].
• The length of the license key will now be 40 characters.
• License keys will have a _mmk suffix.

Please note that the length of license keys may be increased in the future.

Customers using legacy versions of our GeoIP Update program:

Legacy versions of geoipupdate use less secure unhashed license keys. Beginning on March 27, 2023 we will no longer be issuing new unhashed license keys. Your existing license keys can continue to be used, but you will no longer be able to generate new unhashed license keys.

New license keys only work with geoipupdate version 3.1.1 or greater. We encourage you to update to the latest version at your earliest convenience.

Learn how to upgrade from geoipupdate legacy to the current version on our Developer’s Portal.

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (March 2023)

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 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.

We have added geolocation data for Tor exit nodes to all our GeoIP and GeoLite products and services with geolocation data.

Please note that the geolocation for Tor exit nodes is not the geolocation of the end user of the IP address, but the geographical location of the exit node itself. Learn more about Tor and other anonymizers on our Knowledge Base.

Geolocation data for Tor exit nodes is now present in:

• GeoIP2 Country database
• GeoIP2 City database
• GeoIP2 Enterprise database
• GeoIP2 Country web service
• GeoIP2 City Plus web service
• GeoIP2 Insights web service
• GeoLite2 Country database
• GeoLite2 City database
• GeoLite2 Country web service
• GeoLite2 City web service

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (February 2023)

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 for the month of February 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.

On Monday, February 6 we will be updating MaxMind products and services with ISP data to consolidate naming conventions for certain AT&T ISP names. We will now return AT&T Internet instead of AT&T Internet Services and AT&T U-verse. We are updating these values to more accurately reflect new brand name used by AT&T.

The following databases and services are affected by this change:

• GeoIP2 ISP database
• GeoIP2 Enterprise database
• GeoIP Legacy ISP and Organization databases
• GeoIP2 City Plus and Legacy City Web Service
• GeoIP2 and Legacy Insights Web Service
• minFraud Insights
• minFraud Factors

GeoNames Monthly Diff Report (January 2023)

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 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.

* A number of the cities in Ukraine have been updated with more accurate English names.