[Starlink] Re: Lost in Space: The Limits of Geolocation in a Satellite-Connected World (new article from Geoff Huston)

[J Pan <Pan@uvic.ca>]

specifically for starlink, http://geoip.starlinkisp.net shows customer
location by ip address, and their pop (exit to the internet) encoded
in its dns ptr record. "For example, a Starlink dish in Victoria, BC,
Canada has a temporary, external public IPv4 address
(170.203.207.244/21) and a unique CGNAT address (100.76.147.112/10),
as well as various IPv6 addresses through SLAAC and DHCP prefix
delegation, with PTR customer.sttlwax1.pop.starlinkisp.net indicating
the Seattle, WA, USA PoP and “170.203.207.0/24,CA,CA-BC,Vancouver” in
the GeoFeed." it works well mostly, but starlink geofeed and dns ptr
records are often not updated properly and synchronized well, causing
customer complaints at http://reddit.com/r/starlink

another problem is the (uneven/unsuitable) geo-granularity "A Starlink
dish inside the Arctic Circle is listed as Vancouver, more than 2400km
away, according to StarlinkISP’s GeoFeed."

btw, we can use https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.18243 to reach 4.5m, or 65%
of 7m active users claimed by starlink, by ipv6, with their geo
location according to http://geoip.starlinkisp.net
--
J Pan, UVic CSc, ECS566, 250-472-5796 (NO VM), Pan@UVic.CA, Web.UVic.CA/~pan


On Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 10:33 PM Frantisek Borsik via Starlink
<starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>
> https://circleid.com/posts/limits-of-geolocation-in-a-satellite-connected-world
>
> “Where are you?” is not an easy question to answer on the Internet. The
> telephone system’s address plan embedded a certain amount of physical
> location information in the fixed-line network, and a full E.164 telephone
> number indicated your location in terms of your country and your area
> within that country. The Internet did not adopt a geographic address plan,
> which means that you will need a lot of additional information to map an IP
> address to a location at the country or city level."
>
> All the best,
>
> Frank
>
> Frantisek (Frank) Borsik
>
>
> *In loving memory of Dave Täht: *1965-2025
>
> https://libreqos.io/2025/04/01/in-loving-memory-of-dave/
>
>
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantisekborsik
>
> Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp: +421919416714
>
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>
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>
> frantisek.borsik@gmail.com
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