Incorrect IP Address Location being reported by or to Browsers?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Incorrect IP Address Location being reported by or to Browsers?

quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#148705 28-Jun-2014 11:15

Could not find anywhere else to put this post so posting here as Telecom is my ISP, moderator please move if required.
So starting from yesterday I am seeing Australian ads on Geekzone and Chrome keeps asking me if I want to switch to google.com.au on my laptop and iPhone. Not sure what's going on!! Did a search for my IP address and location shows NZ. Have also tried Fifrefox, it doesn't prompt me but by default searches go to google.com.au. Weird!

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Ultimate Geek

#1075947 28-Jun-2014 11:25

Check your gmail or Google account location.

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quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1075948 28-Jun-2014 11:30

Psilan: Check your gmail or Google account location.

Haven't logged in with my gmail account. Also, it's happening on a fresh install of Windows 8 where I even un installed Chrome but firefox default search goes to google.com.au

quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1075950 28-Jun-2014 11:34

Have also checked Region settings etc in OS

Psilan

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Ultimate Geek

#1075951 28-Jun-2014 11:34

http://whatismyipaddress.com shows .au I guess?

quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1075954 28-Jun-2014 11:37

Psilan: http://whatismyipaddress.com shows .au I guess?

Shows NZ and my current ISP and location -

ISP:

Telecom New Zealand Ltd

Services:

None Detected

City:

Howick

Region:

Auckland

Country:

New Zealand

Psilan

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Ultimate Geek

#1075955 28-Jun-2014 11:38

I'd say the problem is with Google then. New ip address range or something?

freitasm

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#1075962 28-Jun-2014 11:47

Geolocation by IP address is not an exact science. IP ranges are moved from provider to provider, even country to country and takes time for these changes to appear third party's databases.

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quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1075965 28-Jun-2014 11:49

FYI my IP address hasn't changed.

freitasm

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#1075967 28-Jun-2014 11:52

Sure, but the databases might have it in the wrong place. Perhaps Telecom had it before assigned to AATP (its ex Australian subsidiary), then moved around. Perhaps just a smal part of the range was sold/transferred and the databases point to an entire block. Who knows?

It's not the end of the world.

FYI, my database reports it as NZ:

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cbrpilot

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Spark NZ

#1075979 28-Jun-2014 12:42

Telecom has not introduced any new IPv4 IP ranges for fixed line broadband in a number of years.
Are you using mobile, or fixed line?

My views are my own, and may not necessarily represent those of my employer.

quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1076013 28-Jun-2014 13:32

freitasm: Sure, but the databases might have it in the wrong place. Perhaps Telecom had it before assigned to AATP (its ex Australian subsidiary), then moved around. Perhaps just a smal part of the range was sold/transferred and the databases point to an entire block. Who knows?

It's not the end of the world.

FYI, my database reports it as NZ:

True, it's not the end of the world.

quebec

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Ultimate Geek

#1076014 28-Jun-2014 13:33

cbrpilot: Telecom has not introduced any new IPv4 IP ranges for fixed line broadband in a number of years.
Are you using mobile, or fixed line?

Fixed line

raytaylor

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#1076577 29-Jun-2014 15:54

A little elaboration on the exact science thing....

Companies that provide ip to location data rely on a number of sources.
1) Social sources - like what country you are in when you sign up to a website that submits such data to them
2) IP Registry - when your ISP is issued a block of ip addresses, they place an entry with apnic on where the ip address will be used. A ip-to-location database seller may scrape this information and add it to their databases.
3) Self submission. Companies like MaxMind allow you to submit error corrections to their databases.

Now companies such as Google, Netflix, TV3 will purchase a subscription to a geolocation database so they can make queries and figure out where you are, so as to give you localised content (NZ adwords, google.co.nz instead of .com.au) and also to prevent you from accessing netflix outside a certain country or tv3 not being allowed to provide ondemand content for viewers outside NZ for some programmes.

The database provided by the company that maintains it is only ever offered to the websites you visit on a best effort basis.

We have a block of ip addresses that used to cause our subscribers to appear in the phillippines - it took a year before most websites were accurately able to identify them as Napier. Even now, some websites using old, outdated databases will still show content for the Philippines.

There are about 5 seperate companies providing such databases to websites.
MaxMind is the biggest.

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#1076584 29-Jun-2014 16:19

Speaking of MaxMind, you can test your IP address here, and can submit corrections here.

freitasm

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#1076616 29-Jun-2014 17:22

We use the MaxMind lite database - I only update it every six months for example so even if it takes some time for MaxMind to update their data, it still takes some time for website owners to update theirs...

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