Just because I have operations in one region does not preclude me
from having operations
in other regions. YMMV of course.
/bill
That was exactly my point, Bill... If you have operations in RIPE and ARIN regions, it is entirely possible for you to obtain addresses from RIPE or ARIN and use them in both locations, or, obtain addresses from both RIPE and ARIN and use them in their respective regions, or mix and match in just about any imaginable way. Thus, IP addresses don't reside in regions, either. They are merely issued somewhat regionally.
In theory Maxmind is quite accurate. From 1 x /20 that we own we tag different space with the country: flag in the RIPE db. Maxmind picks this up after approx 30 days and says it's in Country X vrs country Y. e.g. $ geoiplookup 81.17.247.64 GeoIP Country Edition: US, United States $ geoiplookup 81.17.247.1 GeoIP Country Edition: IE, Ireland Obviously the RIPE db structure makes this simple. As for other RIRs it's not as easy. Like someone else said, it's going to be an 80% solution and its really down to good administration from a network operator point of view. i.e. if you route some of your RIPE space in ARIN territory you should specify the country. There's numerous reasons for this but it's just good practice IMO. Pk