Tracing my pc location

[Ancient Observer]

On my desktop pc, (Win 7) whenever I go to some websites, whether with IE or Firefox, some tracing activity takes place and locates my nearest town. (Slough).
So I want to look up, say, Carphone Warehouse, on Google, and a map of its nearest locations turns up on the google results page.

I use BT, with fibre to the cabinet.

Afaik, this did not happen before I went on to BT's FTC system. I thought that BT just gave out some generic info, placing me in the South east.

Have the tracing activities of Google et al become better? Does BT let out more info?

On Firefox, I have ticked the "do not track" box. For the proxy stuff, I use "auto detect proxy settings"

How can i find out what info they are getting, and how can I reduce the info, should I want to? ..............without getting tooooo complicated.

[Saab Dastard]

They are using geo-location, based on the IP address of your current internet connection.

This usually provides your location to approximately the same level of detail as your post town. It's not always very accurate - for example, one lookup of my IP address puts me in Woking, Surrey and another in Richmond - the latter is closer, but still wrong - while a third correctly places me in Twickenham.

It depends for accuracy on what secondary information the lookup service is using, as the primary source (IP address only) will just give the location of the organisation that registered the address (or block of addresses), in my case, the ISP.

Here's a useful site: IP Location Finder - Geolocation (http://www.iplocation.net/)

If you want to prevent this geolocation, you would need to use some form of IP address proxy or anonymizer. Even a VPN session into a work system would (almost certainly) produce different results.

SD

[xraydice]

I have just tried the geolocation site its about 650 miles out ! and not even in the same country , Me Scotland , geolocate says Cowfold :D

[MG23]

I have just tried the geolocation site its about 650 miles out ! and not even in the same country , Me Scotland , geolocate says Cowfold :D

Yeah, when I visit our customer site in Italy, Google thinks I'm in Holland. So it all comes up in Dutch, though I guess that's really no worse than all coming up in Italian since I don't read either language.

Gotta love these 'user-friendly' features when they go horribly wrong.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

That IP Location Finder is good for as laugh. It suggests that I'm in Camberley, Manchester, Bury St Edmunds and Sandhurst..... not one is correct.

[Ancient Observer]

Thanks, all.
That site gave me 4 geolocation providers. Only 1 was accurate. The other 3 were miles out.

I still believe that BT used to give out a "location" for my IP address as somewhere else. It now appears to be - unnecessarily - accurate.

[Bern Oulli]

Four answers - London (incorrect), Essex (correct but rather vague) and Colchester x 2 (correct, give or take a couple of miles). Two and a half out of four.

[Loose rivets]

Just gone by the CLN VOR on the way to the Cherry Tree. :p

[Pelikal]

Fairly close, in terms of interstellar measurement.


http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g412/RobJHP/Images%20from%20Web/ClosetoTring_zps766e1d57.jpg (http://s1100.photobucket.com/user/RobJHP/media/Images%20from%20Web/ClosetoTring_zps766e1d57.jpg.html)

Whilst I'm here, (I very rarely post), this site I'm sure will entertain. Fun, economical and itelligent U ukike myself). xkcd: The Mother of All Suspicious Files (http://xkcd.com/)

[MJC2]

3 of the 4 say I am in Sheffield wheres I am S of London!

The fourth simply says I am in the UK.

2 of those saying Sheffield give a Lat and Long Fix - but one (both?) do not know exactly where Sheffield is -- 53.37 v 51.5 -1.5 v -0.13.

(Plusnet is a small UK ISP based in Yorkshire, actually owned by British Telecom. I assume Plusnet has registered all its dynamic IPs to Sheffield )

[Keef]

Good game, good game!

It had three votes, one for Northampton and two for Leighton Buzzard.
Both are quite a way from Suffolk.

[Capetonian]

For once, IP Location Finder - Geolocation (http://www.iplocation.net/) is accurate and places me within 2 miles of where I am, but then I am in a place that only has one ISP and I'm probably just about on top of its main node.

[POWDERFINGER]

<grin>Geolocation info for me points to a place on the other side of the world, since I always connect through a VPN (http://bunkerbustervpn.com/vpngate.html). This morning it is Japan, tonight it may be Argentina...

[treadigraph]

I got Redditch, Lancaster, Tamworth and Wolverhampton - although I am currently enjoying a vista overlooking the vestigial remains of Croydon Airport, I'm on a VPN with an Internet gateway in one of those locations!

[mixture]

although I am currently enjoying a vista overlooking the vestigial remains of Croydon Airport

So basically you're sitting stuffing your face with swedish balls in the IKEA canteen ? :E

[treadigraph]

Gawd Mixture, what a dreadful thing to imply... :}

[Ancient Observer]

These are all very interesting, but does anyone have any idea why my recent searches on Google are producing much more accurate location identification than they used to?
I much preferred it when Google thought I lived in St Albans, or in Crawley.
Identifying Slough is just too close.
BT's allocation of IP addresses is either becoming more specific or they are giving out more info to Google et al.

[Saab Dastard]

AO, I suggest that you read up on geolocation - wikipedia will give you some ideas about what secondary information sources are used.

BT is not "giving out" any additional information beyond the IP address, it's probably just that the secondary information is more accurate.

It's also possible that BT have changed your IP address range recently to one that has previously been located closer to where you live.

When they can pinpoint your street and house number is the time to worry.

SD

[Capetonian]

Now it's telling me Maidenhead and Birmingham. About 300 miles wrong.

[Ancient Observer]

Saab,
I think that in the switch to FTC, the IP address range has changed, and whatever geolocation stuff Google uses knows more about the new bunch of IP addresses than the old one. Or, even if the IP adresses did not change, quite simply FTC helps them locate the local town so much better.

Capetonian
You're not trying hard enough. In the early 2000s, the Co that I worked for managed all its Telecomms out of SFO, with "rented" big, quick pipes to everywhere. (Nearly everywhere....but that's just corporate politics). Wherever I was in the world, the Internet thought I was in SFO.

[Peter47]

Well I live in Isleworth which is out by ten miles. But the Virgin Media exchange is very close to it.

I think I knew this already as I get banner adds referring to Isleworth.