On 2013.08.20. 13:18, Marco Davids (SIDN) wrote:

Hi,

Are any of the geo-locations of Atlas probes confirmed, double-checked, or verified by RIPE? Or do we just have to take for granted, whatever the owner of the probe enters in the probe's settings ?

Thanks,

Hi, Generally speaking, we believe what the users claim as the probe's geolocation. However, we also have an internal process to check this against a geoip database (Maxmind). In the vast majority of the cases the results match; the biggest discrepancy is usually because the hosts give relatively precise information and Maxmind is, in many cases, "country only". We do see some odd cases though, which may be because the hosts... khm, "misrepresent the facts", or the probe has been moved from its initial location, or the geoip database is wrong. We also plan to use actual ("anchoring") measurements to help us decide what the reason is. Bottom line: for practical purposes we take the hosts' input for granted and we could disclose more findings if the community wants us to. Regards, Robert