quick and free user geo location using nginx and freegeoip (9)

You've seen the message on landing pages "Find girls tonight in [your area]".

There are a few ways to do this.

1) get a local database of IP addresses (a better solution, but not this tip)
2) use freegeoip.net and a bit of javascript to insert it for you

A few catches.

1) There will be a small delay while it resolves. freegeoip.net is actually built on a pretty significant anycast network globally, so this should be nominal.
2) You are limited to 10K lookups per hour. Enough to get you started. Look into caching lookups or a local solution when you outgrow this

Now to dispell a myth. "Freegeoip is not as good as maxmind free". Not true. The freegeoip started with the maxmind free. Since then there have been many contributors to the database and it now exceeds maxmind accuracy.

So here's how you do it.

1) Set up a proxy_pass in your nginx configuration file.

	location ^~ /freegeoip/ {
		resolver 8.8.8.8;
		proxy_pass http://freegeoip.net/json/$remote_addr;		
	}

Find hot action in <span class="city"> your city</span>

Find hot action in <span class="city"></span>

<script>
  jQuery.getJSON('/freegeoip/', function(location) {
	  if (location.city) {
		$( "span.city" ).replaceWith( location.city );
	  }
  });  
</script>

This is basically a free and easily usable solution to anyone who wants to use javascript-based geoip services. The service appears to be distributed via an anycast network meaning it is geographically not localised to a single server. Like any service that uses some third party, be mindful of how it works and its limitations.

Davidwikes81, if you have questions about technical aspects of someones service please ask a question rather than trolling or being insulting. It seems to be a habit of yours. I have cleaned this thread.

Neat! I'll test this out - thanks for the share.

Is there a way to run this using vanilla Apache, or is it an Nginx-only feature? Looks like it should be possible with rewrite rules.

Originally Posted by zeno

This is basically a free and easily usable solution to anyone who wants to use javascript-based geoip services. The service appears to be distributed via an anycast network meaning it is geographically not localised to a single server. Like any service that uses some third party, be mindful of how it works and its limitations.

Davidwikes81, if you have questions about technical aspects of someones service please ask a question rather than trolling or being insulting. It seems to be a habit of yours. I have cleaned this thread.

Well, it is javascript-based because the on-page script used is javascript. The backend makes no difference, I did not say it used a javascript API.

I presume freegeoip.net simply resolves to the nearest node due the the anycast methodology used and by proxying the request this means it will be a node closer to the server rather than the user. I'm not sure how proxying it through nginx has anything to do with making the system have a single point of failure. If a node goes down would it not fail over to another node? Wouldn't this be the same regardless of the client/server making the request, i.e. proxying doesn't matter.

Originally Posted by caurmen

Neat! I'll test this out - thanks for the share.

Is there a way to run this using vanilla Apache, or is it an Nginx-only feature? Looks like it should be possible with rewrite rules.

I don't understand any of the jargon being spouted in this thread, all I need to know is does this work? And would my VPS host be able to install this for me?

You'll need to check if you're running nginx as your web server - otherwise it won't work without some custom coding. If you are, your hosts should be able to set it up if you're on a managed server.

Originally Posted by theboss

So here's how you do it.

1) Set up a proxy_pass in your nginx configuration file.

Code:

	location ^~ /freegeoip/ {
		resolver 8.8.8.8;
		proxy_pass http://freegeoip.net/json/$remote_addr;		
	}