How to estimate the user location in a web application? - geolocation

On most of posts of SO I read the following about getting ip, location of users:
for users on a corporate network, the location will often be wrong. My corporate network places me in France, or Atlanta even though I'm in the UK. Off corporate network, it is unnervingly accurate
As per my understandings we should not use IP address. Then how can we estimate the user's location in a web application?

Can't you use the JavaScript geolocation API?

Related

Blocking VPN backdoor for GEO IP blocking

We are looking at a web project and wish to register users according to their GEO location.
i.e. We do not want users in the UK registering as users in the USA.
Using Geo IP we can identify the user's country however a simple VPN service can negate this.
Is it possible to have a VPN IP blacklist or similar that would only force users to connect from "legitimate" IP addresses?
Found this:
https://www.howtogeek.com/403771/why-do-some-websites-block-vpns/
It’s common for websites to locate and track users based on their IP
addresses. IP tracking is an easy way to increase account security,
build targeted advertisements, and show users different content
depending on the country in which they live. This practice of IP
tracking is one of the main reasons why people use VPN services, but
it’s also the reason why blocking VPN access to a website is so easy.

Location on Rails App

I have a rails app and I want to track if a user of the app is accessing the app from a computer inside a specific venue or office.
I will like to know if my users are accessing from our venue or at their home (any other location). I have tried geocoder gem but its is not very accurate, the other option was using an ip, but my internet provider gives me dynamic ips.
What can I use to solve this problem?
One thing i have also tried is accessing my computers mac address but from what I have been reading, for security reasons there is no way to access this number.

Can a private IP address have their location passed to an SSP?

I have an app with ad inventory under an SSP. Is my app able to send a person's location data to the SSP if they are under a private IP address? Or if this occurs on desktop with my website?
Since the majority of IP addresses are private, does this mean ad exchanges (or DSPs, networks, etc) are blind to the majority of these people's locations?

How to detect user location for RIM / Blackberry using IP address on a website?

I run a website which customises content by the user's location at a country level, so that users from different countries see different content. To determine a user's location, we run the IP address presented by the client in the REMOTE_ADDR header against MaxMind.com's GeoIP database. For desktop traffic this generally returns us adequately accurate data.
However, for users browsing from mobile devices, things are different. For example, the same user has come through from a South African IP address on desktop, and a United Kingdom address on his Blackberry. We know that he is physically in South Africa. On investigation, his UK IP address belonged to Research In Motion Limited, which is obviously the UK-based Blackberry service. His web requests on his Blackberry handset must be routed through RIM in the UK.
We've looked through the request headers to see if the actual origin IP address was shown in a header other than REMOTE_ADDR but have not found anything.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks!
When using BIS or BES, traffic is routed through a proxy server, run by RIM in case of BIS, or the company hosting the BES server. You could try using HTML5 location features.

How can I use Google API to obtain the Geolocation of an IP address?

I'm looking for a free service for locating an IP Address getting its City, Country, Latitude and Longitude. I believe that I can get the geo-location of an IP using the Google API. Has anyone done that before? Any insights?
I use this: http://isithackday.com/hacks/geo/yql-geo-library/ for my fallback when a device does not have GPS.
Best,
T

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