GeoNames Forum

I am trying to import the geonames data and I am having serious problems. If you have any ideas on how to solve these issues, it would be greatly appreaciated...

Problem 1:
The references of data in the database seem to be circular. I am not able to setup foreign key relationships.
timezones -> countryInfo.country_id
countryInfo -> geonames.geoname_id
geonames -> timezone.timezone_id

Probem 2:
The timezone_id is a string, why geonames does not provide integer id values?

Problem 3:
I couldnt figure out how to get updates? Updates seem daily and if you miss one day you are screwed. There is no update history? How do you solve this issue?

Thanks!