Plenty of Show-IP.ir visitors open the page and see the wrong city — a different city in the same province, or even a different region entirely. This article explains how IP-based geolocation actually works and why it has real limits.
How does IP geolocation work?
No IP address carries GPS coordinates on its own. Geolocation services (including the one behind this site) build their data from carrier registration records (RIR/WHOIS), network data, and aggregated databases, then assign an approximate location to each IP range — not the exact position of one specific user.
Why is the city or location wrong?
- Carrier-grade NAT (CGNAT): thousands of mobile users share a handful of public IP addresses; the registered location is usually the carrier's core infrastructure, not where you actually are.
- Internal carrier routing: your traffic may first hop to a central hub (say, the capital) and pick up its exit IP there, even if you're physically somewhere else.
- Stale databases: ownership of IP ranges changes over time, and geolocation databases take a while to catch up.
- Using a VPN or proxy: if a VPN is on, the shown location is the VPN server's location, not yours — that's exactly what a VPN is supposed to do.
- Cloud/datacenter connections: if you're connecting through a cloud server, the location shown is that datacenter's, which could be in a different country entirely.
So how accurate is IP geolocation?
It's usually very accurate at the country level (95%+), reasonably good at the region/province level, but never reliable down to the exact city or street — because that data simply doesn't exist in an IP address. Any service claiming street-level accuracy from an IP alone is only estimating.
So what's the map on this site actually good for?
The home page map shows the approximate registered location for your IP range — useful for understanding where your traffic "appears" to come from (for foreign services, geo-restricted content, or VPN troubleshooting). If you want your actual precise location, use the "Use my precise location" button — that reads your browser's GPS, not your IP, and it's never sent anywhere.
Key takeaways
- IP location is an estimate based on range ownership, not a direct trace of your device.
- In Iran, carrier CGNAT is the most common reason the wrong city shows up.
- Accuracy is high at the country level and limited at the city level.
- For your real, exact position, use the browser GPS button instead of the IP result.