How can I use an API to detect if an IP address is a VPN in R?

To detect if an IP address is a VPN using IP2Location.io in R, you can use the IP2Location.io API to retrieve geolocation and related data.

  1. We'll assume that you have already installed R & RStudio and we won't cover that here. You will also need a paid subscription to the Security plan. Subscribe now!
  2. In the R Console, run the command below to install the dependencies if you don't have them installed.
    R 
    
install.packages(c("httr", "jsonlite"))
  3. Save the below code into a file called test.R on your computer.
    R 
    
library(httr)
library(jsonlite)

ip = "8.8.8.8"
key = "YOUR_API_KEY"
res <- GET("https://api.ip2location.io/",
           query = list(format = "json", ip = ip, key = key))

if (res$status_code == 200) {
  raw <- rawToChar(res$content)
  data <- fromJSON(raw)
  if (!is.null(data$proxy)) {
    if (data$proxy$is_vpn) {
      print(paste0("The IP ", ip, " is a VPN."))
    } else {
      print(paste0("The IP ", ip, " is NOT a VPN."))
    }
  } else{
    print("ERROR: The is_vpn field requires a paid subscription to the Security plan.")
  }
} else if ((res$status_code == 400) || (res$status_code == 401)) {
  raw <- rawToChar(res$content)
  data <- fromJSON(raw)
  if (!is.null(data$error)) {
    print(paste0("ERROR: ", data$error$error_message))
  } else {
    print(data)
  }
} else {
  print(paste0("ERROR: ", res$status_code))
}
  4. In the RStudio, open the test.R, select all of the codes and run them.

This script will check if the specified IP address is a VPN. Make sure to replace 8.8.8.8 with the IP address you want and replace YOUR_API_KEY to your own API key.

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