What is the “IP Ranges” product? An overview of the API and Database product
IP Ranges
The IP ranges product/solution describes which IP ranges are owned by which companies. Companies like Netlify, Oracle, Microsoft, Accenture etc. can own many IP ranges. So, connecting these two pieces of information is the “IP ranges” solution.
The IP Ranges solution as API
The IP ranges API solution takes in the company domain information and returns the IP ranges that the company owns.
Documenation: IP Address Ranges API - IPinfo.io
The IP Ranges solution as a database: doesn’t exist.
You get IP Ranges with the IP to Company Database.
The IP to Company database is the foundation for the IP Ranges API service. The IP to Company database contains IP ranges the company owns and their company-related information.
However, when we usually talk about the IP to Company database, we assume people use it for looking up IP addresses and finding the company associated with that company. But for the “IP Ranges” lookup, it goes the other way around, where people look up the company and get the list of the IP addresses they own.
Documentation for IP to Company: IP to Company Database - IPinfo.io
The idea also applies to the ASN database. When querying an IP address, we get the ASN information, and when we query an ASN, we get IP addresses within the ASN.
Pro tip: The
as_domaininformation is available on our free IP to ASN database and free IP to Country ASN database.
Users may want to get the IP ranges information, but they might need help connecting 2 and 2 together and figuring out the IP to Company database is the IP ranges database.
Why do we have an IP ranges API and not IP ranges database?
An API takes input, whereas users can run their own query in a database and have full control over the data. Through the API, a user only has limited access to the database. So, they can only pass the domain name information and nothing more. In the database, users can write queries like this on the IP to Company database and get the full picture:
SELECT ip_ranges
FROM ip_company
WHERE domain='salesforce.com'
Where does the hosted domains database fit in all this?
Hosted domains database shows what domain/website is hosted in what server IP address. A website is hosted on a server that has an IP address. Now, there are servers that can host one website, and there are hosting/cloud providers that can host thousands of websites on one IP address.
An IP address, in the case of a cloud provider or data center does not mean a single server; it can be an interconnected group of servers sharing one single IP address. And not all IP addresses host a website. So, this information does not relate to IP ranges information.
Documentation: Hosted Domains Database - IPinfo.io
What is the connection between hosted domains and IP to Company?
The Hosted Domains product shows which websites are hosted on which IP addresses.
The IP to Company database shows which domains are owned by which companies.
Even though a company may own the domain, the domain itself can be hosted on the servers of a different company.
IPinfo services referenced:
Database
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