| IP address moved to Lubbock, Texas??? For several years, my IP address correctly identified my geographic location. In the past week, my IP address began geolocating as being in Lubbock, Texas (more than 1,000 miles away).
This has created a problem on a host of websites, from Google searches and Google Maps predicting I'm searching for information in Texas to latency problems in online games (getting disconnected from servers).
Does anyone know why this change took place? I'm about ready to switch to DSL. |
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| GeoIP is frequently incorrect. It is a database mostly based on data mining (like when you go to a website and type in your Zip Code) or sometimes reverse DNS. That website logs your IP and associates it with the Zip code you entered. They then can sell that information to the data mining company that is used by whatever GeoIP service.
DNS is also a poor way to determine location. For instance, we set the generic reverse DNS for static IP's with "sta" which GeoIP services see as "Stafford Texas" if I recall.
Suddenlink does not have or maintain any GeoIP database to my knowledge. Any GeoIP based website you go to should have the option to change your location manually which will override the GeoIP auto location. |
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| Well, GeoIP has been astoundingly correct for years in my situation... from Google to speed tests (any testing site I've ever used). It's never been wrong. It's never presented a problem for me, until this week when every website that uses GeoIP began thinking I'm a Texan.
If you know how to tell Google my location, please let me know. Google, presumably, has years of usage data to overwhelmingly suggest a location for me, right down to the name of my street. A whole lot of what websites do seems to be based on guessing location based on IP. |
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| reply to Not a Texan
Here is the Google article to help you set your location.
»support.google.com/websearch/bin···=2898331
Note: I'm sure Google uses this for data mining GeoIP information as well.
Edit: It is possible that we added another IP subnet to the CMTS because it was getting low on IP's. The previous location of the new subnet may have been in Lubbock which would invalidate all of the data mining for that subnet. Just a thought. |
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| reply to Not a Texan
Not the same ISP as you but I've had the same STATIC IP address block (/29) for years and some places STILL don't get it right.
So yeah, as SDL already said, they probably just added a new IP block to the CMTS which you are now pulling from. Those companies will "eventually" update so do your location stuff manually. |
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 gatorkramNeed for SpeedPremium
join:2002-07-22
Winterville, NC
kudos:2 | reply to Not a Texan
Also, its fair to say this would not affect your latency at all, nor cause you to get disconnected from online games / servers.
The only reason this would happen, is if the routing for the subnet was also still tired into it's old location, which is not very likely.
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What the heck is a GatorKram? »www.gatorkram.com |
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| said by gatorkram:The only reason this would happen, is if the routing for the subnet was also still tired into it's old location,
What you said went over my head. I'm in the service area (Humboldt) recently affected by a vandal who is cutting Suddenlink's fiber optic lines (again and again and again).
Would the likelihood of an unusual routing of the subnet be greater if it was somehow related to addressing issues posed by the vandalism?
Our Internet went out for about an hour this afternoon, which was an incredibly short time period (the Internet was out for me for two days last week). Maybe it was a coincidence, but if today's outage was caused by the vandal, then Suddenlink got customers back online in record time.
(While I don't know what 'routing for the subnet' means, I realize a cut cable is a cut cable. But could this routing somehow be tied to utilizing another company's fiber line in an emergency?)
I just know that my games keep dropping me due to lost network connections, and this began the same day I noticed websites thought I was in Texas. |
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 NormanSPremium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
kudos:6
 ·SONIC.NET
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| reply to Not a Texan
When I had AT&T DSL service, geo-location sites put me in such cities as Pleasanton, California, San Leandro, California, and Novato, California. Now I have Sonic.net DSL service, and am placed in Santa Rosa, California.
I have seen SBC (which is now AT&T) re-assign Texas IP addresses to the South S.F. Bay Area, and not update the reverse names to reflect the change.
What you are experiencing is very common, and mostly harmless (except to the data miners).
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Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum |
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kb0rpj
join:2004-10-31
Trenton, MO | reply to Not a Texan
I about a month and half ago i moved from *.trenton.mo.cebridge.net to *.kw.tx.cebridge.net |
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