Internet location erratic..... [Archive]

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rans6andrew

13th Oct 2022, 19:55

Does anyone know exactly how websites being accessed figure out where one is, this is on a wired in desktop computer not an out and about portable device?

The reason I ask is that the location detected is often wrong, sometimes very wrong. If I look at something on Ebay the advert often tells me that delivery to HP14.... will be on such and such a day. And sometimes it is closer to my RG10 location.

One day I used the AA traffic report/map page to check for issues before travelling from my home location, the AA map asked for permission to detect my location which I OK'd and the map scrolled across and zoomed in to Tilehurst some 8 or 9 miles away across the other side of Reading. I scrolled it back to my actual location and checked the traffic conditions in the area I was going to drive through. Not good news. I decided to delay my departure to see if it was going to get better along the route or worsen. A couple of hours later I refreshed the page and the map zoomed in to Goring! This is even further west and a few miles north of the previous wrong location.

If I use the AA maps service on a tablet tethered to my mobile phone it doesn't matter where I am it always homes into somewhere near to my RG10 home, even when I am 250 miles away in North Yorkshire, I suspect the tablet doesn't engage it's built in GPS but just reports my home location automatically from a previous fix.

Anyone?

Thanks,

Rans6................

togsdragracing

14th Oct 2022, 08:26

Certainly some locations are derived from the location of your Internet Service Provider. Whether this applies to you is another matter but that is how it is sometimes done.

andytug

14th Oct 2022, 08:33

treadigraph

14th Oct 2022, 09:26

Portable devices will use GPS if you allow the relevant app to access location. If you don't they revert to the same system as the non portable ones, which is based on IP address, which is not very accurate to say the least. I'm on the Lancashire coast and anything connected to my home wifi thinks it's in Peterlee, County Durham on the opposite side of the country. This is down to multiple IPv4 NAT being used by the ISP - Network Address Translation, basically a whole bunch of sub networks in between you and the ISP, so it can't really determine your location all that well.
For some reason Google thought I was somewhere rather remote in Dumfries and Galloway for a day or so recently... perplexing as I was definitely in Sarf Lunnun and I can prove it! Normal service did resume eventually after several cache emptying exercises and a good night's sleep...

netstruggler

14th Oct 2022, 13:06

Portable devices will use GPS if you allow the relevant app to access location. If you don't they revert to the same system as the non portable ones, which is based on IP address, which is not very accurate to say the least. I'm on the Lancashire coast and anything connected to my home wifi thinks it's in Peterlee, County Durham on the opposite side of the country. This is down to multiple IPv4 NAT being used by the ISP - Network Address Translation, basically a whole bunch of sub networks in between you and the ISP, so it can't really determine your location all that well.

This website (https://tools.keycdn.com/geo) will tell you your current IP address and the calculated location, along with a brief description of how it does it.

Octane

15th Oct 2022, 09:03

Just used the link above to check my IP location. I'm in Bali but it reckons Jakarta. Only 600 miles out:}

treadigraph

15th Oct 2022, 10:27

Just used the link above to check my IP location. I'm in Bali but it reckons Jakarta. Only 600 miles out:}
It told me that I'm in Coventry - perhaps I've been sent there!

boguing

17th Oct 2022, 13:14

If it's connected to 'your own' ISP then yes, the ISP usually gives an enquirer a location. This has got more accurate over the last couple of years (mine used to show as Essex, presumably where BT had some equipment).

If anyone with an Android 'phone looks at their Google Timeline - a brilliant function in Maps that conspiraloons will hate - they may see some aberrations, as treadigraph noticed. I'm pretty certain that this is because when you're out and about your 'phone is noticing 'known' wireless hotspots and is navigating, very roughly, using them. All very clever, but when someone moves and takes their router with them it all goes to pot. 'Phone recognises a router that used to be in Lands End and that's what goes into your timeline, no matter where you were. I should add that if you've fired up the 'phone's gps by using a mapping app then the 'phone stops registering wifi and uses the gps to give a far more accurate timeline.

Airbanda

18th Oct 2022, 12:16

Mine usually shows a reasonably accurate 'Northampton'. This shows for example when I use two part authentication to log in when working at home.

However for a few days recently it decided I was in York. This was picked up by internet based radio streaming; Classic FM was offering me ads for car dealers in York.

WB627

18th Oct 2022, 16:10

And I'm in Grimsby ...... Not :rolleyes: Only 175 miles adrift LOL

ISP Plusnet,

netstruggler

18th Oct 2022, 20:03

Strangely, if I enter my IP address into this website (https://www.whatismyip.com/) I get a different location - still in London but a different postcode to the one I get from the link I posted earlier.

Go figure.

EEngr

18th Oct 2022, 23:29

This website (https://tools.keycdn.com/geo) will tell you your current IP address and the calculated location, along with a brief description of how it does it.

Well, it puts me in Pullman, Washington. According to Google maps, that's only $318 away from my current location on Alaska Airlines. ;)

Saab Dastard

19th Oct 2022, 00:11

I think that we have established that internet location from IP address / ISP is not very accurate, and some of the reasons why.