Location of a measurement node

Why a node has to know where it stands – and the three ways to tell it.

A measurement node measures latency. A latency without a location is a number without a subject: 40 ms is excellent over 600 km and a finding over 20 km.

So NODE64 asks for the location – and states everywhere where it came from. An estimate that looks like a measurement is worse than none at all.

Three ways #

1. Enter it yourself #

Your node's page has two fields for latitude and longitude. If you know where your server stands, type it in – that beats any estimate, always. Including on the next run: an automatic lookup never overwrites an entry.

2. With the browser #

Next to it sits Determine with the browser. The browser asks your permission – only on click, never before – and fills the same fields. Saving goes through the same button as a manual entry: there is no second route into the database and no silent one.

It is stored to three decimal places, about a hundred metres. The network needs no more than that, and your home address is none of its business.

This is worth it when you sit at the machine – a laptop, or a box in your own house. For a server in a data centre you are somewhere else than it is; then use way 1 or 3.

3. Estimated #

If you entered nothing, NODE64 tries by itself – in this order:

The DNS name. ae0-20.cr10.dus05.lwlcom.net contains dus – Düsseldorf. Network operators assign such codes themselves, and they are more reliable than any address database because they come from whoever runs the line. NODE64 knows 119 of these location codes.

The address database. It yields the country and nothing else. A country is not a point: the centre of Australia lies some 1500 km from Sydney. Turning a country centroid into a coordinate would claim a precision that does not exist – so this way sets no coordinates, only the country. On the map the node then sits at the country's centre, and the dot says that it is an estimate.

What depends on the location #

• The map. No location, no dot.
• The physics check. A reported latency is held against the speed of light – but only if both ends have a location. A node without one contributes nothing to that check. More under No measurement without evidence.
• Your node's assessment. "Location known" is one of the traits listed on its page.

What does NOT happen #

The agent does not locate you. It has no way to and does not look – no GPS, no Wi-Fi lookup, no query to a third-party service. What it reports is its public address; everything beyond that you decide, or the server derives from what is public anyway.