return a country from an ip

[fizzwizz]

is it possible to return the originating country from an IP?

Thanks ... Fizz

[dalecosp]

Yes; but I assume a bit resource intensive or difficult in some other way. Or maybe it's just no one cares to do it much, since the results can't be trusted 100% in any case.

Google for it and note that the entire first couple of pages are commercial services offering to do just what you're asking for...

I imagine it's some combination of reverse DNS lookups and whois on a grand scale (start with Class A, then B, etc.....)

[drew010]

there are lots of different free and retail script that do this, including sites that will give javascript code to display it. here is one developer resource i used to use on my site.
http://www.maxmind.com/app/api