How does IP address geolocation work?

The majority of third-party websites and services that attempt to geolocate IP addresses do so via commercial geolocation databases, such as MaxMind. The methods used to generate these databases are proprietary and can vary depending on the database, but generally are estimates of location based on a multiple sources of information. Furthermore, IP addresses are often reassigned to different physical locations by network providers, so these databases can quickly go out-of-date.

Due to this, it is not uncommon for two different geolocation databases to report different locations for a given IP address. IP geolocation services are often fairly accurate at the country level, but are less accurate at a local level. Because of the limitations of IP address geolocation, websites that attempt to geolocate your connection via these methods may not always return accurate information.

Egress locations included in the Replica platform are labelled by their true physical location as a top priority, rather than labelling them by estimates given by any particular IP address geolocation service.