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I launched http://ipinfo.io http://ipinfo.io a few years ago. The API gets over 250 million requests a day, and is profitable. I left my job at CTO of calm.com

I launched http://ipinfo.io http://ipinfo.io a few years ago. The API gets over 250 million requests a day, and is profitable. I left my job at CTO of calm.com at the end of last year to focus on it fulltime. There's more of the backstory here: https://getputpost.co/from-side-project-to-250-million-daily-requests-909b9e373d94 https://getputpost.co/from-side-project-to-250-million-daily...

thesehands 10y ago
Excellent, a great site, and quick responses. Thanks for the hard work!
YPCrumble 10y ago
Funny, I signed up for your $10/month plan just yesterday. I found out about you from a StackOverflow answer you posted and thought to tell you that you should answer other questions like "get location from IP address {{ language }}". In particular there was one for Python I didn't see your service listed for, and it took me quite a while to find your service which I'm very pleased with so far.
- coderholic 10y ago
  Thanks - great to have you as a customer!
thecatspaw 10y ago
if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar? edit: also, when I press the back button from this page: http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 all I get is a json
- rudolf0 10y ago
  >edit: also, when I press the back button from this page: http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 all I get is a json Funny you mention that, because I've had the same issue with regular IPs. I use ipinfo.io a lot for my job and have noticed this intermittently.
  - coderholic 10y ago
    Just deployed a fix for this.
- coderholic 10y ago
  Thanks for reporting the back button issue. I've also seen this occasionally, but haven't seriously looked into it. Is this Chrome, or another browser? > if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar? There are 2 parts to that. 1) What's the advantage of using an geolocation API over a local database? It's simpler. There's no need to download a database, or to remember to update it. You can call it from anywhere. 2) Why use ipinfo.io over other geolocation APIs? The main 2 reasons are speed and reliability. i) Reliability - we have multiple servers in auto-scaling groups all around the globe with auto-fail-over, and an excellent uptime record ii) Speed - our API is designed to be extremely fast. We have servers on both US coasts, Germany and Singapore with geoDNS to route your request to the closest servers to reduce latency even further
  - thecatspaw 10y ago
    yeah its chrome Version 54.0.2840.98 (64-bit) on osx Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service. edit: about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup
    - coderholic 10y ago
      Cool thanks - I'll look into what might be causing the back button behavior. > Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service. Sure, if you've got the required sysadmin and dev skills, and a server to host the file. Not everyone does. We also return additional data beyond geolocation, such as the ASN and hostname, and have additional optional fields such as company name and domain, and carrier details. You could download multiple databases and do it locally, but it's even more effort. > about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup Oh sure - it's not quicker than a local lookup - it's quicker than _other_ IP geolocation APIs.
    - iopuy 10y ago
potatosoup 10y ago
Congrats! One thing the post didn't answer is where you got the data (IMO, the most difficult part for this project). Are you using MaxMind or something else behind the scenes?
thenomad 10y ago
That's relevant to my interests! How does your geolocation accuracy compare to MaxMind? If it's more accurate I might be able to send some business in your direction...
- coderholic 10y ago
  I'll send you an email!
jrnichols 10y ago
Ahhhh... Geo IP stuff. That's the reason that I can't get a lot of the local channels on streaming apps. :-P I'm actually n hour north of Dallas, but pretty much all of the Geo IP products show me as being out in east Texas, usually Mount Pleasant or Longview. That's 150 miles from where I am. As a result, I get streams coming from Shreveport, LA instead of Dallas, TX. Not sure if there's a way to fix this.
- coderholic 10y ago
  Interesting. Can you contact me with your IP address at ben@ipinfo.io and I can look into what might be going on here?
- trinkit 10y ago
  This sounds like the same issue addressed in the Reply all podcast about mislocated stolen phones (https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/), they do a small update in the recent Past, Present, Future 2 episode (https://soundcloud.com/replyall/84-past-present-future-2#t=24:35 https://soundcloud.com/replyall/84-past-present-future-2#t=2...).
IAmGraydon 10y ago
Congrats. I'm a bit confused as to why you got a warning email from Linode. I'm a customer, and as far as I know you can use 100% of the CPU that's assigned to your virtual machine without a problem. Were they informing you that you need to use less CPU or were they just suggesting that you might want to upgrade? Also, why didn't you just expand to a more capable Linode or add another Linode? I've found their transfer to cost a small fraction of what AWS charges. I would think your operating costs would be less with Linode.
- coderholic 10y ago
  You can use as much CPU as you like - it was just a configured alert. I thought they were enabled by default, but perhaps not (you can turn them on at https://manager.linode.com/linodes/settings/ https://manager.linode.com/linodes/settings/). I did initially add additional capacity at Linode, but eventually outgrew that. It'd been a long journey from the original Linode VPS to the current setup :)

thesehands 10y ago

Excellent, a great site, and quick responses. Thanks for the hard work!

YPCrumble 10y ago

Funny, I signed up for your $10/month plan just yesterday. I found out about you from a StackOverflow answer you posted and thought to tell you that you should answer other questions like "get location from IP address {{ language }}". In particular there was one for Python I didn't see your service listed for, and it took me quite a while to find your service which I'm very pleased with so far.

coderholic 10y ago
Thanks - great to have you as a customer!

thecatspaw 10y ago

if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar? edit: also, when I press the back button from this page: http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 all I get is a json

rudolf0 10y ago
>edit: also, when I press the back button from this page: http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 all I get is a json Funny you mention that, because I've had the same issue with regular IPs. I use ipinfo.io a lot for my job and have noticed this intermittently.
- coderholic 10y ago
  Just deployed a fix for this.
coderholic 10y ago
Thanks for reporting the back button issue. I've also seen this occasionally, but haven't seriously looked into it. Is this Chrome, or another browser? > if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar? There are 2 parts to that. 1) What's the advantage of using an geolocation API over a local database? It's simpler. There's no need to download a database, or to remember to update it. You can call it from anywhere. 2) Why use ipinfo.io over other geolocation APIs? The main 2 reasons are speed and reliability. i) Reliability - we have multiple servers in auto-scaling groups all around the globe with auto-fail-over, and an excellent uptime record ii) Speed - our API is designed to be extremely fast. We have servers on both US coasts, Germany and Singapore with geoDNS to route your request to the closest servers to reduce latency even further
- thecatspaw 10y ago
  yeah its chrome Version 54.0.2840.98 (64-bit) on osx Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service. edit: about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup
  - coderholic 10y ago
    Cool thanks - I'll look into what might be causing the back button behavior. > Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service. Sure, if you've got the required sysadmin and dev skills, and a server to host the file. Not everyone does. We also return additional data beyond geolocation, such as the ASN and hostname, and have additional optional fields such as company name and domain, and carrier details. You could download multiple databases and do it locally, but it's even more effort. > about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup Oh sure - it's not quicker than a local lookup - it's quicker than _other_ IP geolocation APIs.
  - iopuy 10y ago

potatosoup 10y ago

Congrats! One thing the post didn't answer is where you got the data (IMO, the most difficult part for this project). Are you using MaxMind or something else behind the scenes?

thenomad 10y ago

That's relevant to my interests! How does your geolocation accuracy compare to MaxMind? If it's more accurate I might be able to send some business in your direction...

coderholic 10y ago
I'll send you an email!

jrnichols 10y ago

Ahhhh... Geo IP stuff. That's the reason that I can't get a lot of the local channels on streaming apps. :-P I'm actually n hour north of Dallas, but pretty much all of the Geo IP products show me as being out in east Texas, usually Mount Pleasant or Longview. That's 150 miles from where I am. As a result, I get streams coming from Shreveport, LA instead of Dallas, TX. Not sure if there's a way to fix this.

coderholic 10y ago
Interesting. Can you contact me with your IP address at ben@ipinfo.io and I can look into what might be going on here?
trinkit 10y ago
This sounds like the same issue addressed in the Reply all podcast about mislocated stolen phones (https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/), they do a small update in the recent Past, Present, Future 2 episode (https://soundcloud.com/replyall/84-past-present-future-2#t=24:35 https://soundcloud.com/replyall/84-past-present-future-2#t=2...).

IAmGraydon 10y ago

Congrats. I'm a bit confused as to why you got a warning email from Linode. I'm a customer, and as far as I know you can use 100% of the CPU that's assigned to your virtual machine without a problem. Were they informing you that you need to use less CPU or were they just suggesting that you might want to upgrade? Also, why didn't you just expand to a more capable Linode or add another Linode? I've found their transfer to cost a small fraction of what AWS charges. I would think your operating costs would be less with Linode.

coderholic 10y ago
You can use as much CPU as you like - it was just a configured alert. I thought they were enabled by default, but perhaps not (you can turn them on at https://manager.linode.com/linodes/settings/ https://manager.linode.com/linodes/settings/). I did initially add additional capacity at Linode, but eventually outgrew that. It'd been a long journey from the original Linode VPS to the current setup :)