MaxMind GeoIP Lookups on Mobile Carrier IPs

MaxMind is the geolocation data inside a large share of the web without most people noticing. Its GeoIP databases and web services answer questions such as which city an address is in, which network owns it, what kind of connection it is and whether it belongs to an anonymizing service. Sites use those answers to pick a currency, show local content, set a default language or decide how much to trust a login. For anyone running a SpoofProxies line it helps to know what MaxMind is likely to say about an AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon address, and why a mobile location is broader than a home broadband one.

City, region and the accuracy radius

A MaxMind City result gives a country, a subdivision such as the state, often a city, a postal code when it has one, a latitude and longitude, and an accuracy radius. That radius is the part people skip, and it is the most honest field in the record. It says, in effect, the true location is probably somewhere within this circle. For home broadband the circle can be tight. For mobile carriers it is usually wide, because the public address is assigned at a carrier gateway that serves a whole region, not at the tower the device is using.

The coordinates are a point chosen to represent that area, often near the middle of a metro. They are not where the modem is. If a site draws a pin on a map from them, the pin is a guess about the region.

Why carrier addresses land where they do

Carriers route data from many towers back to a handful of gateways, and it is the gateway's address pool that the world sees. MaxMind learns where those pools are used from a mix of network registration data and signals from partners, then assigns a location. That usually lines up with the metro the line is in, and sometimes with a nearby hub instead. One practical example on our network: Boston Verizon addresses tend to geolocate as Boston, while Boston AT&T addresses tend to geolocate as New York, because of how that carrier routes the region. If a precise city matters to your work, pick the carrier as well as the metro, and check the result rather than assuming it.

Because pools are regional and finite, rotating a line normally keeps you in the same general area but can shift the reported city between neighbouring places.

Connection type, ISP and anonymous IP fields

MaxMind sells several databases beyond location. The connection type database labels an address as cellular, cable or DSL, corporate or satellite. The ISP database names the network and organisation and, for mobile ranges, can include mobile country and network codes that identify the carrier. The anonymous IP database flags addresses it associates with VPN providers, hosting providers, public proxies, residential proxy services and Tor exits. The GeoIP web service can also return a user type, where cellular is one of the values.

For a carrier line you would normally expect cellular, the carrier as ISP, and a hosting flag that reads false. The residential or public proxy flags depend on what MaxMind has observed on that shared pool address; as with any CGNAT address, a label can come from a different user of the same pool.

Keeping a profile consistent with the lookup

Most of the friction people blame on geolocation is really a mismatch. A browser reporting a Pacific time zone while the address resolves to Chicago, a language setting from another country, or a shipping address three states away from the login will all stand out more than the address itself. When you choose a line, set the browser or device time zone to the metro MaxMind reports, keep the language consistent with a US user, and keep each account on the same metro rather than bouncing between cities. If you do need to change metro, our location moves are free from the dashboard, but treat a move like a real relocation for any signed-in account: expect a verification prompt and do not switch back and forth.

None of this changes what a site is allowed to decide. It just removes avoidable contradictions from a legitimate setup.

What MaxMind cannot tell a site

MaxMind does not know who is behind an address, how many people share it right now, or whether a particular session is a person or a script. Its data is refreshed on a schedule, so a record is a snapshot of what it last learned. On a carrier network a site cannot get street-level precision from the address at all, which is why services that truly need location ask the device for permission instead. Treat any MaxMind result on a mobile address as regional context, useful for local content and currency, and nothing more exact than that.

Setting up a MaxMind GeoIP proxy on SpoofProxies

1. Decide which metro your work needs and, if the exact city matters, which carrier.
2. Add a line in that metro and copy its host, port, username and password.
3. Point a dedicated browser profile at the line and confirm the exit address.
4. Look the address up in MaxMind's demo or your own GeoIP integration and note city, accuracy radius and connection type.
5. Set the profile's time zone and language to match the reported region.
6. Recheck after any location move so your notes match what sites will see.

MaxMind GeoIP proxy questions