On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:19:23 -0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:

> esoterik wrote:
>> On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:32:18 +0000, Rob wrote:
>>
>>> Just wondering how sites capture a visitor's IP address and how this is
>>> done in PHP?
>>
>>
>> any ideas how the ip address is resolved to a zipcode/location without
>> using one of the commercial lists?
>>
>
> Nope, and even then it is not accurate. For instance, all AOL users
> show as coming from Virginia. And when I'm on my dialup account from
> MD, it shows I'm coming from NY.
>
> You can get a state (or, as in the case of the Washington, DC area, a
> metro area) in maybe 70-90% of the cases. But the more accurate you try
> to narrow it down, the less accurate your location will be.
>
>
how exactly would you narrow it down to even the metro area of where the
IP is registered to? I know visual traceroutes exist, but I'm not sure how
I could write a script to resolve IP to an 'area' short of using cURL to
strip it off someone elses website.