A method for accurately determining the geographic location of a PC or
other networked device on the Internet. Client software furnished by a
service provider performs trace-route or other network analysis commands
to known servers (e.g., eBay, Yahoo, Amazon) or even servers at random
locations. The client collects an array of IP address and other network
information as a result of the trace-routes, and the trace-route IP
information is then transmitted to the service provider that is trying to
identify the geographic location of the client. Using the array of IP
addresses thus generated, the Internet server software can analyze
location information of each Internet hop within each trace-route. For
example, the server might look at the first five hops from the client to
the server. If four of the five routers have addresses within the
geographic area of interest, the server can conclude that the client is
probably within the geographic area.