GeoIP Release Notes

GeoNames monthly diff report (November 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 November 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 geoname IDs have been updated for Brazil and the United States.

The postal code associated with the IP address is now returned for the countries of Indonesia and Vietnam.

Learn more about postal code data on our Knowledge Base.

Beginning on November 5, 2024, we will be releasing an improvement to confidence factors.

What’s changing?

• Around 15% of networks will have updated level 1 subdivision confidence factors. New values should be more accurate than previous values.
• We will now include level 2 subdivision confidence factors in the GeoIP Insights web service and the MMDB format of the GeoIP Enterprise database.

What should I do?

• If you are a GeoIP Enterprise database user and you use subdivision confidence to make decisions, you may want to test the new confidence factors released in the databases on November 5, 2024 and make adjustments to your thresholds before putting them into production.
• If you are GeoIP Enterprise database user and you use the MMDB database format, you may want to update your integration to look at level 2 subdivision confidence data.
• If you are a GeoIP Insights web service user and you use subdivision confidence to make decisions, you may want to monitor your application starting on November 5, 2024 and make adjustments to thresholds as necessary.

On October 22, 2024, we will update the ISP and Organization name for the French telecommunications company Free Mobile SAS. The current ISP and Organization name is Free Mobile SAS. Beginning on October 22, 2024, the ISP and Organization name will be set to Free Mobile.

The following products and services will be affected:

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

On October 18, 2024 we will update the ISP and Organization name for OVH, a large hosting provider. The current ISP and Organization name is OVH SAS. Beginning on October 18, 2024, the ISP and Organization name will be set to OVHcloud.

The following products and services will be affected:

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

On October 15, 2024 we will update several ISP names to remove various business tags, such as LTDA, S.R.L., CA, SAC, and more.

The following ISP names will be updated:

The following products and services will be affected:

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

GeoNames monthly diff report (October 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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, a large number of geoname IDs have been updated for Brazil.

On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, we will release an improvement to our user count data to better detect IPs with multiple end users.

Many IP addresses with multiple end users that previously had a user count value of 0 or 1 will now have a value of 2.

If you have applications of the data that rely on user count values with a threshold of 0, 1, or 2, you may want to increase the thresholds by 1. For example, if you currently consider user count values of greater than 1 to be high volume, you may wish to consider user count values of greater than 2 to be high volume when this update goes live.

The following services will be impacted:

• GeoIP Insights web service

Learn more about user count data on our Knowledge Base.

Submit a support ticket request if you have questions or concerns.

GeoNames monthly diff report (September 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

* In this month’s update, a large number of geoname IDs have been updated for Brazil.

On September 3, 2024, we will be releasing a significant improvement to our geolocation confidence factors. This improvement will impact around 30% of the networks in the GeoIP Insights web service and the GeoIP Enterprise database.

Our IP geolocation databases released on Tuesday, August 13, 2024 will be significantly larger than our last release.

This increase in size is due to a new data source providing improved geolocation resolution for a large number of networks in Germany and Finland.

The following databases will be affected:

• GeoIP City database
• GeoIP Enterprise database
• GeoLite City database

Today, we are issuing an off-schedule release of the following GeoIP databases:

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

We are correcting country-level information for a small number of networks associated with Microsoft Teams.

We are updating postal code data for the following major cities in Portugal:

• Amadora
• Porto
• Vila Nova De Gaia

When an IP address is geolocated to any of these cities, the last three digits of the postal code will be set to 001. This change will be implemented over time, with some networks being updated starting on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, and more networks to follow.

The last three digits of postal codes are used in larger cities to provide geolocation information that is more specific than our underlying data allows for, so these digits will be set to 001. In more rural areas, the last three digits will be maintained.

The changes will be reflected in the following products and services:

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

GeoNames monthly diff report (August 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

The GeoLite City and GeoLite Country databases will not be released today, Friday August 2. We expect the databases to have an updated release on Tuesday, August 6.

The corrected GeoIP ISP and Enterprise databases have been released, and the Mobile Country Codes (MCC) and Mobile Network Codes (MNC) data is now available.

The Mobile Country Codes (MCC) and Mobile Network Codes (MNC) data is missing from the GeoIP ISP and Enterprise databases.

We expect to release a corrected build within a few hours.

Today, we are issuing an off-schedule release of the following GeoIP databases:

• GeoIP2 City database
• GeoIP2-Country database

We are reverting changes for a few IPv6 networks that are not currently in use on the internet.

You will now see an increase in the number of English place names with accented characters in GeoIP products and services. Previously, we were using the ASCII-only version of the names.

Non-ASCII characters may contain diacritics, accents and other marks. For example:

You may see English place 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

GeoNames monthly diff report (July 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

We are updating several ISP names in our data. We expect to release these changes in new database updates and web service requests beginning Friday, July 12, 2024.

There are two kinds of changes to expect.

First, we will update several popular ISP names to match their current naming and branding conventions:

Second, we will be updating the ISP name for a number of AT&T networks. About 1,000 (0.003%) AT&T networks in the United States will have an updated ISP name, either AT&T Internet or AT&T Wireless.

Updated AT&T networks will have corresponding updates to their connection_type value as well. For most networks, this will mean:

Please note that some AT&T networks may not have the corresponding connection type, because connection type values are dependent on additional signals.

These changes will be reflected in the following products and services:

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

The GeoLite2 ASN database will now be updated on a daily cadence instead of every Tuesday and Friday.

GeoNames monthly diff report (June 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

GeoNames monthly diff report (May 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

* In this month’s update, a large number of geoname IDs have been updated for Mexico.

Starting in May, Let’s Encrypt will no longer use a cross-signed root certificate, and the primary TLS certificate handling the *.maxmind.com domains will be impacted by this change.

Most customers will see no impact from this change.

This change should only be of concern if the servers interacting with MaxMind domains are running a very old or out of date operating system, or if you manage your own local Certificate Authority store.

• Read more about these changes on the Cloudflare blog.
• Get information about compatibility from Let’s Encrypt.

GeoNames monthly diff report (April 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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 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.

* In this month’s update, a large number of cities in Slovenia have improved place names. A large number of geoname IDs have been updated for Brazil.

GeoNames monthly diff report (March 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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.

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:

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

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

Due to irregularities in the latest GeoNames data, we will be maintaining the location names and codes from January. See the monthly diff report for January 2024.

When the irregularities in the GeoNames data are resolved, we will update the data and post a new diff report.

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:

• 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 affect minFraud API requests. If you are also a minFraud user, see our minFraud release note on this issue..

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.

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:

• GeoIP Enterprise example files
• GeoIP City and Country example files

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

• Importing to PostgreSQL
• Importing to MySQL

GeoNames monthly diff report (January 2024)

GeoIP and GeoLite 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.

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