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Does an IPv6 world prevent IP-based location sniffing? It seems odd to me that IPs can still be used to (semi-)reliably determine a client's geographical locat

Does an IPv6 world prevent IP-based location sniffing? It seems odd to me that IPs can still be used to (semi-)reliably determine a client's geographical location. With the immensely larger address space that comes with IPv6, does that give the Internet a chance to completely sever the link between geography and IP address? Or do we still have issues with aggregating routes in a space-efficient way?

dylz 8y ago
The commercial internet does not want to sever the link. It wants to be able to lock users out in certain ways, have blackout dates, etc.
ndnxhs 8y ago
In my limited understanding I believe that ipv6 blocks are given out to organisations such as your local ISP which let's you know the location because you can see who owns the block. I don't think limited addresses was ever the reason for assigning in blocks but the real reason is it makes routing easier. Instead of having every router know the path to 128² addresses it only needs to know that everything starting with these few bytes goes to this port which saves memory on routers.
lmm 8y ago
IPv6 address space is less fragmented than IPv4 (that's part of the point), so inferring location from IPv6 address is if anything easier. Addresses should correspond to network topology in order to be useful for, you know, routing. And network topology tends to correspond to physical location for practical engineering reasons. Of course there's no reason someone couldn't run a cable halfway around the world to use IP space in one country from a different one (or use a VPN, is what people do in practice), but realistically what would they gain from that?
- function_seven 8y ago
  Thanks. I had some fuzzy idea backwards in my mind: that part of the reason IP blocks are correlated to location had to do with address space constraints. But that’s wrong. Having a massive address space makes it trivial to keep routable blocks contiguous no matter how many IPs they contain.

dylz 8y ago

The commercial internet does not want to sever the link. It wants to be able to lock users out in certain ways, have blackout dates, etc.

ndnxhs 8y ago

In my limited understanding I believe that ipv6 blocks are given out to organisations such as your local ISP which let's you know the location because you can see who owns the block. I don't think limited addresses was ever the reason for assigning in blocks but the real reason is it makes routing easier. Instead of having every router know the path to 128² addresses it only needs to know that everything starting with these few bytes goes to this port which saves memory on routers.

lmm 8y ago

IPv6 address space is less fragmented than IPv4 (that's part of the point), so inferring location from IPv6 address is if anything easier. Addresses should correspond to network topology in order to be useful for, you know, routing. And network topology tends to correspond to physical location for practical engineering reasons. Of course there's no reason someone couldn't run a cable halfway around the world to use IP space in one country from a different one (or use a VPN, is what people do in practice), but realistically what would they gain from that?

function_seven 8y ago
Thanks. I had some fuzzy idea backwards in my mind: that part of the reason IP blocks are correlated to location had to do with address space constraints. But that’s wrong. Having a massive address space makes it trivial to keep routable blocks contiguous no matter how many IPs they contain.