[HN Gopher] DNS LOC Record (2014)
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DNS LOC Record (2014)
Author : mikejeays
Score : 122 points
Date : 2025-11-29 14:02 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.cloudflare.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.cloudflare.com)
| stego-tech wrote:
| ...getting a homelab project idea, where I create LOC records for
| devices without a dynamic IP address so I can figure out where
| the f*k they are without having to keep a continuous mental map
| running at all times. Free up some mental bandwidth as it were.
|
| Very, _very_ cool function to have. I wonder how feasible it'd be
| to dynamically update it using GPS measurements for fleet
| tracking, given even Cloudflare had to patch in support.
| kragen wrote:
| You could just serve up a text file over HTTP.
| hughw wrote:
| buzzkill
| stego-tech wrote:
| I could, but I'd rather not enable HTTP on devices that don't
| need it.
|
| Don't get me wrong, I'm _keenly aware_ there 's easier ways
| to accomplish such a goal, but _that 's not the point_. I
| have discovered something new and, as a way of practicing
| multiple other skills at the same time, am musing over
| homelab projects I could do to put it into practice and
| cement that knowledge.
|
| It's just like my internal-only emoji DNS resolver: goofy,
| amusing, and ultimately impractical outside of the homelab,
| but still a great way to learn several new things together.
| habbekrats wrote:
| you could run ur own resolver somewhere and have ur devices
| update that? i think dns updates are a bit 'slow' sometimes
| so unsure how much u'd need to update them. if its frequent
| id say ur own dns resolver would be fastest as ur control
| the records directly on the box u query
| kragen wrote:
| Oh, well, writing your own dynamic DNS system is certainly
| a great learning project.
| wowczarek wrote:
| Even without LOC, there's also TXT. In my work lab (size of a
| medium DC, tonnes of devices from a variety of vendors) we used
| formatted TXT records to store things like: rack elevations,
| host/port for serial access server, switched power outlet info,
| reservation status, loan / return info and more. With this and
| cnames for rack numbers/elevations, with simple scripts we
| could do more than either a free-but-clunky or a decent-but-
| expensive DC management system could, from CLI, and quicker.
| teddyh wrote:
| A reasonable compromise might be to use the HINFO and RP
| records? The latter even has a reference to a name where a
| TXT record can be placed with additional information, if
| necessary.
| narmiouh wrote:
| I don't know that the accuracy afforded by LOC would be enough
| to pinpoint objects inside a house, though the optional fields
| may perhaps be used to provide room/rack location.
| crote wrote:
| Lat/lon are in thousandths of a second of arc. If I did my
| math right, that means the worst-case precision is a hair
| over 3cm. Altitude is in centimeters, so on a comparable
| scale.
|
| Looks to me like it is accurate enough to locate even the
| smallest network-connected devices! Provided someone doesn't
| invent wifi-connected rice grains, of course.
| koolba wrote:
| > Looks to me like it is accurate enough to locate even the
| smallest network-connected devices!
|
| This should be a standard feature of server cages. The base
| rack itself could have a GPS receiver and provide the
| relative location of each rack.
|
| That way when you nudge the rack over a few feet to make
| room for the foosball table it automatically updates its
| own physical location.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| > where I create LOC records for devices without a dynamic IP
| address so I can figure out where the f*k they are without
| having to keep a continuous mental map running at all times
|
| Obligatory bash.org quote[1]:
|
| <erno> hm. I've lost a machine.. literally _lost_. it responds
| to ping, it works completely, I just can't figure out where in
| my apartment it is.
|
| [1]: https://qdb.lol/quote/5273
| shellpipe wrote:
| Haha. Great idea, I might try this one.
| jgrahamc wrote:
| Oh wow. Did I really write that 11 years ago! How time flies.
| bo0tzz wrote:
| The post mentions 743 LOC records in the entire database; I'd
| be very curious to hear what that number's at now?
| jgrahamc wrote:
| I will ask someone to find out and report back.
| Normal_gaussian wrote:
| Any chance of convincing someone to do a stat dump on all
| record types?
| jgrahamc wrote:
| The answer is... 2,386 LOC records.
| bradfitz wrote:
| How many of those additional 1,643 were a result of your
| 2014 blog post? :)
| varenc wrote:
| Their example in the blog post, geekatlas.com, no longer
| provides an LOC!
| dublinben wrote:
| Unfortunately the example included (geekatlas.com) appears to be
| long gone, so we're not able to enjoy this ourselves.
| teddyh wrote:
| A list still exists at <https://www.ckdhr.com/dns-
| loc/sites.html>.
| xg15 wrote:
| That's nice and all, but is there anything that _consumes_ LOC
| records?
| Normal_gaussian wrote:
| /dev/null
| mikepurvis wrote:
| It consumes all
| pumplekin wrote:
| I once wrote something that did, as an internal tool.
|
| It was basically an MPLS traceroute tool that used LOC records
| on RFC1918 loopbacks to plot pretty maps (well, the lines were
| way too straight on long range links, but ...).
|
| It was used by marketing and basically nobody else, but it
| existed !
| mesrik wrote:
| That's a good question.
|
| During 2024 Summer Olympics my then employer which DNS and core
| network I was still managing as I returned summer holiday. I
| was told by helpdesk our users around different locations at
| campus were not able to open national TV broadcaster streaming
| services and view the games.
|
| I found out by asking few of these users that they got denied
| claiming to be from UK and that streaming services were not
| allowed abroad. TV broadcaster told me once I got someone to
| know anything about the matter reply, that they use MaxMind
| GeoIP service. So I went to see and test few addresses from
| MaxMind debug page and that clearly showed many addresses from
| around 20 subnets of /16 our IPv4 CIDR block were showing the
| same.
|
| So I sent email to MaxMind support asking why and tried to find
| out means they use to check where each network is located and
| populate it to their GeoIP DB, which then clients either mirror
| or use remotely from their service.
|
| After few emails with their support that they did not use RIPE
| (RIR) database at all as RIPE terms of use doesn't allow using
| RIR information for commercial purposes. So MaxMind neither did
| not apparently use WHOIS (RDAP) LOC records, and wrong
| information did not update from our LOC records DNS had either.
|
| I never got any explanation how they figure out where that IP
| or CIDR block is being used. Between the lines I was assuming
| it's perhaps some kind of trade secret they don't like to talk
| about. Maybe it's using mobile devices location service or
| like, but amount these days VPN's are being used that could
| lead them updating bogus information to database service use
| they then sell and naive customers trust <eh>.
|
| But most I was surprised by that how easy it was update
| information, basically just communicating clearly and writing
| polite convincing message they seemed to take that information
| pretty much by face value and that I was sending my messages
| from DNS SOA RNAME address.
|
| But if GeoIP data provicers don't use that then who or what
| services do, that I still have no idea.
| Matheus28 wrote:
| They could get a rough estimate of an IP location using
| traceroute from many different known locations. Very rough
| but it's a starting point.
|
| For some cases, they might just lookup who owns that IP range
| and put their address as the IP location.
| lgeek wrote:
| These days RFC8805[0] is pretty widely supported. But as far
| as I understand, it's not entirely trusted and geolocation
| providers will still override that data if it doesn't match
| traceroutes and whatever other sources they use
|
| https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8805
| luckman212 wrote:
| something something it's always DNS
| teddyh wrote:
| See also: <https://www.ckdhr.com/dns-loc/>
| avipars wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41099567
| weinzierl wrote:
| Who remembers the ICMB meta tag?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICBM_address
|
| (It's funny that the Wikipedia article has it in the section
| _Modern use_ )
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