Whois and inconsistent results

[Vastasia2018]

The forum Whois system sometimes identifies an IP as coming from "country: ZZ" (I think that means unknown).

However today I wanted to check through one of the whois services on the internet and the IP in question (101.56.61.103) belongs to the provider Sky and is identified as "country: IT".

Why then does phpBB's whois identify it as ZZ?

Thank you.

[Manard]

Hello,

When I can't find an IP address with Whois, I use this website : https://ipgetinfo.com/

Bernard

[Fitolis]

Somebody can use vpn olso

[Vastasia2018]

No, the problem is another, maybe I didn't explain the problem well.

It is the phbBB whois system that fails to identify the country of origin of the IP.

In the example I wrote in the first post you can understand very well. While pbpBB's whois system gives me the result "Country: ZZ", in reality the IP originated from "Country: IT", as you can get from any online whois service.

I hope I explained better this time.

[warmweer]

In the example I wrote in the first post you can understand very well. While pbpBB's whois system gives me the result "Country: ZZ", in reality the IP originated from "Country: IT", as you can get from any online whois service.

https://ipgetinfo.com/?mode=ip&lang=en&ip=101.56.61.103 says it's India
https://www.proxydocker.com/fa/iplookup/101.56.61 also says it's India
Other search results say it's Italy

I'ld say it's unclear and thus ZZ is a safe answer

[Vastasia2018]

https://ipgetinfo.com/?mode=ip&lang=en&ip=101.56.61.103 says it's India
https://www.proxydocker.com/fa/iplookup/101.56.61 also says it's India
Other search results say it's Italy

I'ld say it's unclear and thus ZZ is a safe answer

Hi, the first link you wrote to me, in the "More details" part says Italy, while this one clearly says Italy.

In any case, India also has its own code, which is not ZZ.

In the end the question is: is it possible to point the phpBB to another IP lookup source?

[warmweer]

https://ipgetinfo.com/?mode=ip&lang=en&ip=101.56.61.103 says it's India

Hi, the first link you wrote to me, in the "More details" part says Italy, while this one clearly says Italy.

Well spotted.

Trying to find the official instance assigning IP (ranges?), but can find a clear authority.

[Spartan1]

At least yours shows something.

My whois window doesn't show anything except the phpbb footer.

Very annoying.

[thecoalman]

If you aren't getting any IP information then the outgoing connection is probably being blocked by your host or the service is blocking your IP.

[thecoalman]

Why then does phpBB's whois identify it as ZZ?

I went and did a little digging. The ZZ is because it's reporting information about APNIC but as noted that IP was transferred to RIPE. These are all regional registries, phpBB is using ARIN which covers the US and Canada.


Around line 1466 of includes/functions_user.php

Code: Select all

	$whois_host = 'whois.arin.net.';

Changing it to

Code: Select all

	$whois_host = 'whois.ripe.net.';

That will give you desired results but I'm assuming this is going to screw up other queries outside of region covered by RIPE. I guess if that is region you are in it's preferable. Doesn't appear there is any single resource for the IP info and you would need a query to first find what regional registry to query or something along those lines.

Edit: should of read the code a little more down, there is some lines to handle referrals to different registries. Checking the OP's IP it's correctly referred to RIPE. Might be bug or ARIN is not correctly returning the referral.

[danieltj]

It's worth noting that public IP addresses have never been very useful for forum owners and even less useful nowadays. ISPs for residential customers have dynamic IPs, so you can get a new one by simply resetting your router. Then you also have vast amounts of people using VPNs now so the information you're getting from IPs can be wildly inaccurate.

I could use a VPN to pretend I'm in the US whereas I'm actually in the UK where's it's too hot right now...

[Spartan1]

If you aren't getting any IP information then the outgoing connection is probably being blocked by your host or the service is blocking your IP.

Which port does whois use so I can check.

Here is a screenshot of what whois is doing.

It takes exactly 1 minute to give this result.

[thecoalman]

Port 43, check your server error logs. Whatever the case it's not a phpBB issue. Start your own topic if you find it to be a phpBB issue.