[SOLVED] IP address / proximity lookup script

[boo_lolly]

I'm trying to see how to write a script that can read the current user's IP, and reverse check to see the physical location (country, city, state, zip... whatever I can get) of the current user. I've seen a couple of sketchy sites that do it out there, already, but I need this information to be calculated on my server so I can store this information into a database, along with the IP address, simultaneously. So I was wondering, first, if it would be better to write this script on my own, or if I should use curl to communicate with one of the websites that can already does this. Second, how would I do either one of them? Not familiar at all with curl, and I'm not sure where to begin if I were to write it myself.

 

The most useful of the websites I have found that do this is here: http://www.find-ip-address.org/  (it's pretty accurate. gets me within 10 miles of my actual current location.)

 

Can I get some help with this?

[ldougherty]

You can retrieve the visitors IP address using $_SERVER variables, namely..

 

$ip=$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

 

Now that you have the IP you can query a database online that is updating to locate the IP to a physical region.

 

If you check out the following link he explains how he implemented this onto his site.

 

http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/network-location/

[boo_lolly]

I found a great deal of information from that link. Thanks!

 

first, for a commercial ip/geo-locator service you can go to http://www.maxmind.com/app/geolocation which is known to be incredibly accurate.

 

second, for a free ip/geo-locator service you can use a very simple http request using http://www.hostip.info/use.html . This website is not always accurate. however, when it encounters an ip that it can't locate, it requests the end user to provide their location. Don't you just love open-source?

 

Thanks again!