Baa, baa, baa

[sraun]

This one has me curious.



Create your own visitor map!


I think I'll dig around some more on their site and find out what they're really mapping!

Comments

[sraun]

I couldn't find any kind of write-up about how it was working on their web-site. I assume it's using some kind of third-party reference to map my IP address to a physical location (i.e., my IP address is assigned to my ISP, which has a physical location associated with it), but I'm not certain. Anyone have any ideas?

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

This is odd - it doesn't ask for your LJ user name, so it isn't going from the public information there. If it's using the IP address, it'll artificially fill up with people who log off every day.

[sraun]

More accurately, it'll fill up with people that get issued a new IP address regularly. Which is going to mostly be people who use dial-up. Some varieties of DSL change relatively frequently (the low-end one from Qwest here in Minneapolis is not up 24x7, and so is more likely to get a new IP address). Most other broadband only gets a new IP address every few months, at worst - my DSL is up 24x7 on a static IP, I've got friends using both DSL and cable modems on DHCP - they report getting a new IP address every 2-6 months, usually when they power-cycle their modem equivalent. They don't always get a new IP address, that's just the time that they do get one.

What I want to know is where the dot in the Balkans came from. There's nothing I can match up with it in the details - my foreign visitors are UK, Finland, and Balkans on the map, but only UK and Finland on the details. I know who the Finland visitor is, and am reasonably certain I know who the UK visitor is - but I haven't the faintest idea who's reading me from the Balkans. Maybe I'll ask sometime.

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

I'm on DSL, with a strong provider, but I turn my computer completely off when I leave, so I thought that would force a new IP address. No?

[sraun]

It depends on a lot of things - do you an external DSL box or an internal card?

If you have an external box, it has IP two addresses - one facing the outside world and one facing your home network. The one facing the outside world is the one that anyone will get as your address, and is likely to change slowly if at all - after all, how often do you turn off that box?

If you have an internal card, then the question becomes more interesting. When you turn your computer on, you get an IP address for some period of time (how long depends on your ISP - I've heard of values as low as five minutes and as high as 14 days). If your computer is on and connected when the lease expires, it will ask for an extension and get another period. Now, where life gets interesting is when the period is some multiple of 24 hours - most people will use their computer about the same time when they use it, and most LJers are in the group that use it every day. So, say you're assigned an IP address on Monday at 7PM, with a lease of 24 hours. If you turn your computer off at 10PM, it does not automatically terminate the lease. So, turn your computer on at 6PM on Tuesday, and your system and the server will both know that you should be using the same IP address you were assigned 23 hours before, and you'll continue to use it. An hour later, the lease expires, your computer asks for a renewal, and you get to keep it until 7PM on Wednesday. As long as your computer is on and connected at 7PM when the lease expires, you'll get to keep the same IP address. Does this make sense?

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

Internal card. Which means, if I have followed your explanation correctly, that turning off the computer to force the IP address to be regenerated, my have actually had the opposite result?

Hm.

[sraun]

Well, may not have had the anticipated result. Rebooting the computer will not get you a new IP address, it just refreshes the computer - you've still got the lease expiring at the same time.

If you're running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, you can open a command prompt and run "ipconfig /all" - the last couple of lines will tell you when your lease started and when it ends. If you're running Win9x or WinME, you run 'winipcfg', and the same information is there somewhere, but I don't remember exactly where.

[ann-mcn.livejournal.com]

I love learning new tricks!
And my lease started when I logged on this afternoon, and runs 24 hours.

[gryphons-lair.livejournal.com]

Aren't Doug & Claudia in the Balkans now? Maybe one of them reads your LJ.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

What are they mapping?


(http://www.maploco.com/view.php?id=190422)
Create your own visitor map! (http://www.maploco.com/)

[sraun]

As near as I can tell, they're using one of the IP Address -> Geographical Location sites / algorithms / whatever, and mapping that.
Basically, they're mapping the address of record of your ISP.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Whatever it is, it's not working. I selected a different map type, and don't see much happening. Oh well.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I have mostly locations I'd expect, aside from a hit in the Netherlands, which is interesting. While my father is of Dutch descent, I don't actually know anyone there.

I've also recently noticed that someone I've never heard of in the UK has friended me. I have no idea why, since we have no friends in common, and the only mutual interests listed are books and gardening, which seem rather broad.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

(http://www.maploco.com/view.php?id=201348)
Create your own visitor map! (http://www.maploco.com/)