How to obtain country codes?

bendt/sea-point wrote:

> Dear Sirs,
>  
> I would like to develop an internet site for visitors in different
> countries.
> In order to present the right language and the right currency to the
> persons visiting my website
> I would like to know in which country my visitor lives in.
> I know how to obtain the visitors ip address. Can I get the wanted
> country information somehow
> using the ip address?
> I am interested even if it includes payment of a fee.
>  
> Hoping for your kind reply,
> */Best regards, /*
> */Bendt Schalman/*
>

Hello Bendt,

The RIPE Network Management Database contains information about IP
address space allocations and assignments. This information also
indicates the country where resources were first allocated or assigned.
However, it is not intended that the data is considered as an
authoritative statement of the location where any specific resource may
currently be in use.

Therefore, using this information for IP to country mapping may result in
inaccuracies and, as a result, in user's confusion in many cases.

For instance, as the Internet is global, it is easy for users to either
intentionally or unintentionally use IP addresses that have been
assigned to a company conducting business in another region.  For
example, a user in Italy may be receiving ISP service from a company who
gets a link to Japan via a satellite company run out of the US.  Which
company has the space registered depends on their business and
networking arrangements.

Information about IP address space allocations and assignments is
available in two forms:

1. Monthly reports of data relating to allocations and assignments
within the RIPE region.

   These reports are available at ftp://ftp.ripe.net/pub/stats/ripencc/
  
   The format of the RIPE data and the conditions for its use are set
   out in the readme file at:

    ftp://ftp.ripe.net/pub/stats/ripencc/_README-ripe-stats.txt

   Links to statistics produced by the other RIRs (APNIC and ARIN) are
   available at:

    http://www.aso.icann.org/stats/index.html

2. Text file containing all inetnum objects in the RIPE Database which
is updated daily. The file is available at:

    ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/dbase/split/ripe.db.inetnum.gz

   For more information about the format of the database objects please
   refer to the Database Reference manual at:

    http://www.ripe.net/ripe/docs/databaseref-manual.html.


If you have any more questions, please contact <ripe-dbm at ripe.net>.


Regards,

Trudy Prins
-----------------------------
RIPE NCC Staff