Maxmind/geoip error "Database has been closed"

Question

Using maxmind/geoip api I have come up with the error "Database has been closed" Anyone have any ideas why this might be?

I have tried multiple different ways of doing this (single line & multiple line solutions etc.) but can't figure out why it isn't working. When debugging I have found that the database is being read for the LookupService line of code as I can see that it has retrieved the country names from the database, but when I try and use

 string userIpAddress = HttpContext.Current.Request.UserHostAddress;
 string geoIpDbPath = "/App_Data/CMSModules/WebAnalytics/MaxMind/";
 string geoIpDb = geoIpDbPath + "GeoIP.dat";
 LookupService ls = new LookupService(geoIpDb, LookupService.GEOIP_MEMORY_CACHE);
 Country c = ls.getCountry(userIpAddress);

This is becoming quite frustrating as I can see that the database has been successfully accessed and the variable 'ls' has been given the appropriate value.

What's wrong with my approach ?

Answer 1

On old version of the api code hides the fact it fails to load the file:

    public LookupService(String databaseFile, int options){
        try {
            this.file = new FileStream(databaseFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
            dboptions = options;
            init();
        } catch(System.SystemException) {
            Console.Write("cannot open file " + databaseFile + "\n");
        }
    }

Each method call then checks if this.file has been set an raises the exception you are seeing

 public Country getCountry(long ipAddress){
            if (file == null) {
                //throw new IllegalStateException("Database has been closed.");
                throw new Exception("Database has been closed.");
            }