Thanks for reporting the back button issue. I've also seen this occasionally, but haven't seriously looked into it. Is this Chrome, or another browser?
> if I understand this correctly, ipinfo is basically a lookup in a db? What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar?
There are 2 parts to that.
1) What's the advantage of using an geolocation API over a local database?
It's simpler. There's no need to download a database, or to remember to update it. You can call it from anywhere.
2) Why use ipinfo.io over other geolocation APIs?
The main 2 reasons are speed and reliability.
i) Reliability - we have multiple servers in auto-scaling groups all around the globe with auto-fail-over, and an excellent uptime record
ii) Speed - our API is designed to be extremely fast. We have servers on both US coasts, Germany and Singapore with geoDNS to route your request to the closest servers to reduce latency even further
yeah its chrome Version 54.0.2840.98 (64-bit) on osx
Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service.
edit: about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup
This comment reminds me of the response Dropbox received when being introduced to ycombinator.
"...you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem."
Cool thanks - I'll look into what might be causing the back button behavior.
> Im sorry but setting up a cronjob to download maxmind + include jars into project seems easier and faster than incorporating a third party web service.
Sure, if you've got the required sysadmin and dev skills, and a server to host the file. Not everyone does.
We also return additional data beyond geolocation, such as the ASN and hostname, and have additional optional fields such as company name and domain, and carrier details. You could download multiple databases and do it locally, but it's even more effort.
> about speed, since you call such a database yourself most likely, you are not gonna be faster than local lookup
Oh sure - it's not quicker than a local lookup - it's quicker than _other_ IP geolocation APIs.
What is the advantage of this over a local lookup, say with maxmind or similar?
edit: also, when I press the back button from this page: http://ipinfo.io/AS6830 all I get is a json