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Can anyone tell me how often should i expect a routable IP address (either v4 or v6) to have its associated geolocation (country + city level) changed, in average?

I'm asking this because i'm implementing some analytics features for a web service that associates the clients' IP addresses to a geographical location. When an IP address is encountered for the first time, an external IP geolocation service is queried, which returns the location data, which is then cached in order not to abuse the service. However, i do not expect that location data to remain forever the same for that IP address, so at some point in the future i'll have to refresh it. The question is, when should that point in the future be? After a few days, a month, a year?

I suspect, for instance, that dynamic IPs provided by operators such as GSM carriers are more likely to change their location sooner than others, but i don't have a clear big picture.

Any insights into this would be greatly appreciated.

Gabriel S.
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  • depends ob your scenario. If you need the data to be accurate, once a day is provably what you want. If not, you can get away with once a week/month/year.... – MichelZ Apr 01 '14 at 10:56
  • I don't need real-time, up-to-date accuracy, so i definitely won't refresh a location for an address more than once a day. I'm thinking once a month, but if the vast majority of addresses change location even less often, then several months. – Gabriel S. Apr 01 '14 at 12:07
  • You might want to ask that question to your geolocation provider. I would not expect them to change very often. – MichelZ Apr 01 '14 at 12:20
  • Yes, good point, it doesn't really matter how often the actual IP address location changes if the geolocation service provider doesn't update their database in a timely manner. – Gabriel S. Apr 01 '14 at 12:23

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