Custom databases
Sniffnet natively embeds MMDB databases useful to gain insights about the observed IP addresses.
More precisely, the app comes with the following databases:
- an IP to country MMDB
- an IP to ASN MMDB
The MMDB file format and how these databases are used by the application is better discussed in the Network hosts section.
The databases embedded in the application are the free version of the MaxMind GeoLite2 databases,
but you can also use your own MMDB files in Sniffnet.
This could be useful in different scenarios:
- you own the commercial version of such databases, which is overall more accurate
- you want to frequently update the databases without waiting for a new version of Sniffnet
- you want to use a different database provider for your analysis
Tip
A really valuable provider of MMDB files is IPinfo, that offers daily updated datasets characterized by unmatched levels of accuracy and reliability.
The reason why Sniffnet doesn't natively use IPinfo is that their databases are bigger in size, but I definitely recommend using them if you're looking for top-quality data.
To use your own MMDB files in Sniffnet, open the application settings and go to the General tab.
There, you can find buttons to select the IP to country and IP to ASN databases you want to use.
Note
Several MMDB providers offer databases that merge country and ASN information in a single file.
If you own such a kind of file, you can select it as both the country and ASN database.