Geographic location determination including inspection of network address

A method for determining a geographic location for a network address, comprising:

• receiving a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between a server and a client on a network;
• matching the first network host identifier to a first template;
• first parsing the first network host identifier according to the first template to determine a first geographically significant component, wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network host identifier, the network host identifier comprising a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• identifying an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing;
• matching the second network host identifier to a second template;
• second parsing the second network host identifier according to the second template to determine a second geographically significant component;
• and
• revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said second parsing.

A method of determining a geographic location, comprising:

• creating a log comprising network addresses of clients that have communicated with a web server;
• filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;
• asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server regardless of a whether a previous geographic location for the first one of said filtered network addresses had been determined;
• analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route to ascertain a geographically significant component of at least one network address between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network address, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• and
• determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing.

A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for geographic location determination based at least in part on inspection of a network address of a client, the instructions when executed on a machine, cause the machine to:

• perform a trace route between a server and the address of the client, the trace route identifying at least one domain name in a route between the server and the client;
• identify a construction format for the domain name, wherein the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• identify a geographically significant component of the domain name;
• determine a geographic location for the domain name based at least in part on the geographically significant component;
• determine a possible geographic location of the client based on a geographically significant component of a text based network address corresponding to the client network address;
• and
• validate the possible geographic location of the client using the determined geographical location of the domain name identified in the trace route, the validating returning a validated geographic location of the client.

A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for determining a geographic location for a network address, the instructions when executed on a machine, cause the machine to:

• receive a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between a server and a client on a network;
• match the first network host identifier to a first template;
• first parse the first network host identifier according to the first template to determine a first geographically significant component;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network host identifier, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network host, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network host is assigned;
• identify an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing;
• match the second network host identifier to a second template;
• second parse the second network host identifier according to the second template to determine a second geographically significant component;
• and
• revise said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said second parsing.

A computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon for determining a geographic location, the instructions when executed on a processor, cause the processor to:

• creating a log comprising network addresses of clients that have communicated with a web server;
• filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;
• asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server regardless of a whether a previous geographic location for the first one of said filtered network addresses had been determined;
• analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route to ascertain a geographically significant component of at least one network address between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network address, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• and
• determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing.

An apparatus for geographic location determination based at least in part on inspection of a network address of a client, the apparatus comprising:

• a network comprising a plurality of devices, the devices including a plurality of client nodes;
• a server communicatively coupled to the network;
• performing means coupled to at least one of the server and client for performing a trace route between the server and the address of a client being one of the plurality of client nodes, the trace route identifying at least one domain name in a route between the server and the client;
• identifying means coupled to the server for identifying a construction format for the domain name;
• identifying means coupled to the server for identifying a geographically significant component of the domain name;
• determining means coupled to the server for determining a geographic location for the domain name based at least in part on the geographically significant component;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the domain name, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• determining means coupled to the server for determining a possible geographic location of the client based on a geographically significant component of a text based network address corresponding to the client network address;
• and
• validating means coupled to the server for validating the possible geographic location of the client using the determined geographical location of the domain name identified in the trace route, the validating means to return a validated geographic location of the client and store the validated geographical location of the domain name in a database residing on a storage device coupled to the server.

An apparatus for determining a geographic location for a network address, comprising:

• a network comprising a plurality of devices, the devices including a plurality of client nodes;
• a server communicatively coupled to the network;
• receiving means for receiving a trace route comprising first and second network host identifiers for hosts disposed between the server and a client being one of the plurality of client nodes on a network;
• matching means for matching the first network host identifier to a first template;
• parsing means for first parsing the first network host identifier according to the first template to determine a first geographically significant component of the first network host identifier;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network host identifier, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network host, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network host is assigned;
• identifying means for identifying an estimated geographic location for the client based at least in part on said first parsing;
• the matching means for matching the second network host identifier to a second template;
• the parsing means for second parsing the second network host identifier according to the second template to determine a second geographically significant component of the second host identifier;
• revision means for revising said estimated geographic location based at least in part on said second parsing;
• and
• storing means for storing said estimated geographical location in a storage coupled to the server.

An apparatus for determining a geographic location, comprising:

• a network comprising a plurality of devices, the devices including a plurality of client nodes;
• a web server communicatively coupled to the network;
• creating means for creating a log comprising network addresses of one or more clients of the plurality of client nodes that have communicated with the web server;
• filtering means for filtering the log so as to remove undesirable network addresses;
• asynchronous tracing means for asynchronously performing a trace route between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server regardless of a whether a previous geographic location for the first one of said filtered network addresses had been determined;
• analyzing means for analyzing a result of said asynchronous performed trace route and for ascertaining a geographically significant component of at least one network address between a first one of said filtered network addresses and the server;
• wherein the geographically significant component is derived from a construction format of the network address, where the construction format comprises a first portion including port and device data for network equipment utilized to host a particular network address, a last portion identifying a particular backbone provider, and a middle portion comprising a reference to a nearest airport to a device to which the particular network address is assigned;
• determining means for determining a geographic location for said first one responsive to said analyzing;
• and
• storing means for storing the geographical location in a storage coupled to the web server.