Sandbox for the GeoIP Web Services

MaxMind customers can test certain aspects of the web services through our Sandbox environment. You must first have set up an account in our Sandbox environment. Learn how to create a Sandbox account.

Once you create your Sandbox environment, you can test the GeoIP web services as you would in production, using special testing IPs to generate specific responses. You can learn more below about:

• how to use the Sandbox environment to test IP lookups through the account portal,
• how to use the Sandbox environment to test your API integration,
• the list of IP addresses and expected responses in the Sandbox GeoIP web service.

Testing IP Lookups through the Account Portal on the Sandbox

Once an account administrator has set up your Sandbox environment and granted you access, you can perform IP lookups through the account portal just as you would with your regular account, using special test IPs.

To access the GeoIP web services IP lookup forms on the Sandbox environment, first set up the Sandbox environment for your account, then login to the Sandbox here [direct link, Sandbox account login required] and navigate to the appropriate lookup form(s) in the left-hand navigation menu.

You can learn more about how to do manual lookups of IP addresses using the account portal. The process is the same in the Sandbox environment.

Only certain IP addresses exist in the Sandbox environment’s test database. Learn more about test IPs below.

You can also turn on “Out Of Credit” mode to test the behavior of the account portal when you don’t have enough service credit for additional lookups. Learn more about Out Of Credit mode for the Sandbox.

Testing IP Lookups through the API on the Sandbox

Once an account administrator has set up your Sandbox environment and granted you access, you can integrate your applications with and perform IP lookups through the GeoIP web service APIs just as you would with your regular account.

To integrate with the API in the Sandbox environment, you will need to create a license key using your Sandbox account. Login to the Sandbox and navigate to the appropriate license key management forms [direct link, Sandbox account login required].

You can learn more about the process of creating a license key. The process is the same in the Sandbox environment.

Learn more about integrating with the Sandbox GeoIP web service via API on our developer portal.

Only certain IP addresses exist in the Sandbox environment’s test database. Consult the section below for a list of test IP addresses for the GeoIP web services in the Sandbox environment.

Test IPs for the Sandbox GeoIP web service

There are a limited number of IP addresses in the test database for the GeoIP web services on the Sandbox. The Sandbox versions of the GeoIP web services use special test data. See the test data on Github.

The test data is displayed in JSON format, and would be the expected response for a query using the listed IP address. For example, one of the entries in the test data reads:

   {
      "::64.17.254.216/125" : {
         "city" : {
            "confidence" : 40,
            "geoname_id" : 5368361,
            "names" : {
               "de" : "Los Angeles",
               "en" : "Los Angeles",
               "es" : "Los Ángeles",
               "fr" : "Los Angeles",
               "ja" : "ロサンゼルス",
               "pt-BR" : "Los Angeles",
               "ru" : "Лос-Анджелес",
               "zh-CN" : "洛杉矶"
            }
         },
         "continent" : {
            "code" : "NA",
            "geoname_id" : 6255149,
            "names" : {
               "de" : "Nordamerika",
               "en" : "North America",
               "es" : "Norteamérica",
               "fr" : "Amérique du Nord",
               "ja" : "北アメリカ",
               "pt-BR" : "América do Norte",
               "ru" : "Северная Америка",
               "zh-CN" : "北美洲"
            }
         },
         "country" : {
            "confidence" : 99,
            "geoname_id" : 6252001,
            "iso_code" : "US",
            "names" : {
               "de" : "USA",
               "en" : "United States",
               "es" : "Estados Unidos",
               "fr" : "États-Unis",
               "ja" : "アメリカ合衆国",
               "pt-BR" : "Estados Unidos",
               "ru" : "США",
               "zh-CN" : "美国"
            }
         },
         "location" : {
            "accuracy_radius" : 20,
            "latitude" : 34.0544,
            "longitude" : -118.244,
            "metro_code" : 803,
            "time_zone" : "America/Los_Angeles"
         },
         "postal" : {
            "code" : "90009",
            "confidence" : 1
         },
         "registered_country" : {
            "geoname_id" : 6252001,
            "iso_code" : "US",
            "names" : {
               "de" : "USA",
               "en" : "United States",
               "es" : "Estados Unidos",
               "fr" : "États-Unis",
               "ja" : "アメリカ合衆国",
               "pt-BR" : "Estados Unidos",
               "ru" : "США",
               "zh-CN" : "美国"
            }
         },
         "subdivisions" : [
            {
               "confidence" : 90,
               "geoname_id" : 5332921,
               "iso_code" : "CA",
               "names" : {
                  "de" : "Kalifornien",
                  "en" : "California",
                  "es" : "California",
                  "fr" : "Californie",
                  "ja" : "カリフォルニア州",
                  "pt-BR" : "Califórnia",
                  "ru" : "Калифорния",
                  "zh-CN" : "加利福尼亚州"
               }
            }
         ],
         "traits" : {
            "autonomous_system_number" : 33224,
            "autonomous_system_organization" : "Towerstream I, Inc.",
            "connection_type" : "Corporate",
            "isp" : "Towerstream I",
            "organization" : "Towerstream I",
            "static_ip_score" : 0.34,
            "user_type" : "business"
         }
      }
   },

Reading the above entry, we would expect the following responses if we submitted the IP address 64.17.254.216 to the Sandbox versions of the GeoIP web services:

As you can see, the response you will get from the Sandbox version of the GeoIP web services depends on both the test IP address used, and the specific web service queried. For example, even though there is a city confidence factor for this IP address in the test data, it will not be returned if you query the Sandbox version of the GeoIP City Plus web service, because the GeoIP City Plus web service does not return confidence factors.

Learn more about how our GeoIP web services compare, and about the different levels of geolocation granularity in our data.

Notice that the entry above does not have every field populated. This specific entry is meant to simulate a query in which the IP address cannot be geolocated down to the subdivision, city, or postal code region. There are different kinds of testing IPs in the test data, which can be used to ensure your integration is robust and responds to different kinds of valid GeoIP web service responses.