So anyway, I downloaded that RIPE whois data base and just did this: grep -i '^country:' ripe.db.inetnum | awk '{print $2}' | uc | dupcount > dupes The "uc" program is just my own litte concoction to upshift everything. (And yes, I'm sure that there's probably an existing UNIX command line tool to do this already. Don't bug me about it. I *like* programming.) The "dupcount" program is also my own little concoction that just counts groups of identical lines and then prints the lines and the counts. (See my "Don't bug me" comment above.) So anyway, the list below is _very_ naive and unscientific, and I'll be the first one to admit that it sure as heck doesn't prove a damn thing... In fact it doesn't even actually vaguely even suggest a damn thing. Not at this stage. But some folks here might find it modestly interesting and/or amusing, so I thought that I'd share it. Every one of the top country codes is unambiguously European... I know ISO 3166 pretty much by heart now... until we get down to "US", and that's where the non-European country codes start to dribble into the mix. I will say that I was a bit surprised to see TW and KR mixed in here. Those are pretty far afield. Not that there would be anything wrong with that. Regards, rfg 607977 IT 439177 GB 288405 FR 249352 NL 248828 DE 236682 PL 188555 AT 145159 RU 88081 DK 53381 SE 46974 CZ 45241 FI 38613 CH 35980 NO 32455 ES 30806 IL 27054 IE 22809 BE 19204 KZ 17062 TR 15832 RO 13598 UA 13449 HU 13052 GR 10534 AE 9497 LV 9456 PT 7579 SK 6415 IR 6005 SI 5980 CY 5323 BG 5021 EE 4072 SA 3775 LT 3566 HR 3389 US 3260 BY 2275 KW 2015 LU 1926 RS 1724 KG 1715 QA 1597 CS 1534 MT 1491 BA 1406 EU 1265 NG 1263 JO 1147 IS 1055 AM 874 MK 857 GE 845 LB 804 IQ 626 PS 575 MD 558 ME 551 ZA 473 GL 470 UZ 377 BH 322 SG 318 AL 286 OM 276 NA 246 AZ 231 FO 227 LI 220 GI 220 CA 217 JP 174 TJ 167 AU 151 IN 149 MC 141 SY 119 BR 106 CD 106 MY 100 EG 98 AR 93 YU 92 GH 91 AF 90 AQ 90 AO 89 CN 80 AX 78 CI 75 KE 75 TZ 68 MX 68 ZW 60 AD 58 HK 56 SM 52 TW 52 LR 46 CM 46 PK 46 NE 45 GN 45 YE 42 CO 41 MZ 41 SO 40 LY 39 UG 39 IM 37 PA 36 SL 36 DZ 35 ZM 33 GQ 32 MW 32 CL 30 MQ 27 PE 26 KR 25 CF 24 SD 24 BJ 23 NZ 22 DJ 22 SZ 21 MR 21 BD 21 MG 20 TD 20 MA 20 SC 19 VE 18 GA 17 BZ 16 ID 15 GP 14 TH 14 VG 13 BF 13 BI 13 TM 12 ET 12 CR 12 CG 11 DO 11 PH 10 BW 9 AN 9 GD 9 MU 8 SN 8 ER 7 GG 7 JE 7 RE 6 VA 6 BS 6 UY 6 KM 5 KY 5 TG 5 FK 5 SR 5 BM 5 ST 5 PR 5 AG 5 BB 4 KN 4 RW 4 NI 4 LS 4 SV 4 PF 4 CV 4 TN 4 ML 3 YT 3 JM 3 BN 3 GM 3 BO 3 GW 2 HN 2 AS 2 NP 2 PG 2 KP 2 TT 2 GT 2 LK 2 CU 1 BT 1 MH 1 KH 1 SE# 1 PY 1 GF 1 LA 1 MC# 1 IO 1 AI 1 HT 1 AW 1 MM 1 GY 1 MO 1 EC