On 2/2/03 1:10 PM Owen Watson ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: >>The characterisation is accurate, and regardless of whether you use >>the free or >>the commercial databases, you will see false mappings (which largely rely on >>netblock delegations, and do not take into account that larger >>companies and ISPs > >I'm no expert, but isn't this the same problem that afflicts analysis >of web logs for any data? You always have to explain to others about >proxies etc. What you'll always get is a guide, not definitive >answers.
I agree. These kinds of reports can be useful, but they will never be completely accurate. In my experience the Country information can be accurate enough (better than 95% right for some commercial databases) to be useful, while the state information is generally so far off as to be much more misleading than it is useful. Historically Analog has tended to only report information that can be verified, and leave interpretation of that information alone. For example Analog does not report on visits, which is speculative, while it does report on unique hosts which can be verified. Country mapping databases, which like vist counting can be useful, appears to fall into the speculative category. Jason ----------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------- Dr. Seuss books . . . can be read and enjoyed on several levels. For example, 'One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish' can be deconstructed as a searing indictment of the narrow-minded binary counting system. -- Peter van der Linden, Expert C Programming, Deep C Secrets +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list: | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | Digest version: http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help-digest/ | Usenet version: news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.analog.general | List archives: http://www.analog.cx/docs/mailing.html#listarchives +------------------------------------------------------------------------
