cannot access some popular websites from Linode, geolocation is wrong, ARIN is to blame?

Sun Mar 3 01:22:51 UTC 2013

On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 4:58 PM, Constantine A. Murenin
<mureninc at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've had a Linode in Fremont, CA (within 173.230.144.0/20 and
> 2600:3c01::/32) for over a year, and, in addition to some development,
> I sometimes use it as an ssh-based personal SOCKS-proxy when
> travelling and having to use any kind of public WiFi.
>
> Since doing so, I have noticed that most geolocation services think
> that I'm located in NJ (the state of the corporate headquarters of
> Linode), instead of Northern California (where my Linode is physically
> from, and, coincidentally or not, where I also happen to live, hence
> renting a Linode from a very specific location).

If you care about geolocation of your IP addresses, submit that
information to the geolocation services. For the $20/month you're
paying Linode (or do you have the expensive account?), why would they
care about geolocation?

> Additionally, it seems like both yelp.com and retailmenot.com block
> the whole 173.230.144.0/20 from their web-sites, returning some
> graphical "403 Forbidden" pages instead.

At a glance, I'd bet this has more to do with Linode being a VPS
provider (not an eyeball network) than anything else. Despite
everything VPS service providers do to prevent it, they do get abused
by folks attempting every sort of fraud imaginable. As they're not an
eyeball network, the fraud to not-fraud ratio of eyeball activities is
not ideal.

> This would seem like a possible shortcoming of ARIN's policies and the
> whois database:  with RIPE, every `netname` has a `country` associated
> with it, seemingly without any requirements of a mailing address where
> mail could be received; but with ARIN, no state is ever provided, only
> a mailing address.  (I've also just noticed that RIPE whois now has an
> optional `geoloc` field in addition to the non-optional `country`.)
>
> Now, back to ARIN:  is Linode doing it right?  Is vr.org doing it
> wrong?  Are they both doing it correct, or are they both wrong?

They are both correct. ARIN allows address holders to SWIP down to
whatever level they want, but only requires them to SWIP assignments
of /29 or more addresses. Some service providers prefer that abuse be
immediately the subscriber's problem, so they put the info in the
whois system. Others come down on the side of keeping their customer
database out of the hands of competitors, so they publish the minimum
required information. In both cases, the smaller the account the less
willing they are to deviate from the corporate standard.

> Anyhow.  How do I get my geoloc to show Fremont, CA?  And to have yelp
> stop returning 403 Forbidden?

Contact customer support. Tell them you're blocked. Ask them not to
block you. Same as you would for any encounter where the service
provider has blocked your source address.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004