Ask Slashdot: Getting Around Terrible Geolocation? 100
First time accepted submitter AvitarX writes W3C has the IP address where I work as showing up in Ireland (we are in the USA). This is a nuisance for a lot of reasons (many dates now display in European format, prices are listed in euros, search results redirect to google.ie). Some of these issues can be worked around, but it's frustrating. I have searched as best as I can, and only can find information on the geolocation API in HTML5. The office is on a static IP address from Comcast. When I visit whatismyipaddress.com all info is correct except for W3C's result. I have submitted that it is inaccurate; is there anything else I can do? Googling, I have only managed to find usage examples for web developers/designers.
Second problem with Comcast in a day (Score:2)
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Or maybe DICE is pissy that Comcast isn't using including them more in their hiring process.
Re:Second problem with Comcast in a day (Score:4, Informative)
Every day is a bad day at comcast. It is usually a bad day for comcast customers too.
Comcast has the worst customer service for a reason. they just don't care.
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Maybe time to learn the ISO date format YYYY-MM-DD.
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Geolocation is being abused (Score:1)
You can't pick where the geolocation service says you are, yet it is used for everything including content delivery and advertisements.
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You can't pick where the geolocation service says you are, yet it is used for everything including content delivery and advertisements.
And controlling access to content. "Oh woe is me! I can watch Dr. Who on the BBC website and you can't! How can I fix it?!?!?".
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You can't pick where the geolocation service says you are, yet it is used for everything including content delivery and advertisements.
And controlling access to content. "Oh woe is me! I can watch Dr. Who on the BBC website and you can't! How can I fix it?!?!?".
If you insist on watching such poorly produced garbage: thepiratebay.se [thepiratebay.se]
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I'll admit I'm a few seasons behind, but garbage or not I'd have to say it's still one of the better shows out there. And yes, that probably says a hell of a lot more about the vast sewage pit of modern programming than it does about the quality of Doctor Who.
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I'll admit I'm a few seasons behind, but garbage or not I'd have to say it's still one of the better shows out there. And yes, that probably says a hell of a lot more about the vast sewage pit of modern programming than it does about the quality of Doctor Who.
Exactly. Doctor Who is the "reference plane" against which all other television programming is measured.
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Where are you that you can't get Netflix?
Of course you might like to change you geolocation to get a better selection of shows.
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You can't pick where the geolocation service says you are, yet it is used for everything including content delivery and advertisements.
And controlling access to content. "Oh woe is me! I can watch Dr. Who on the BBC website and you can't! How can I fix it?!?!?".
No, he can't watch Dr Who on the iPlayer because his IP is showing up as Irish, and Ireland (aka Eire, aka Republic of Ireland) is not in the UK (not since 1922). iPlayer is for UK residents only.
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But why would you want to?
It it bugs you a lot you can bypass those... (Score:2)
...with a proxy run on some other place, like people do to get access to US only content and such. But that is generally a hassle.
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If it makes you feel any better, I'm in Hong Kong, and all my stuff has American accounts so all that glorious DRM shit doesn't work. Yeah much to my amazement it doesn't work when you travel.
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I see what you did there (Score:2)
Nice pun in the title. Almost didn't catch it.
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Not that smart...
VPN or Proxy (Score:4, Informative)
Your options suck (Score:5, Informative)
Hi,
I own https://wonderproxy.com/ [wonderproxy.com] and the primary thing we sell our customers is "a server where we say it is so you can test your localization", and we have problems _all the time_. So I've been where you are, with the added bonus of having customers yelling at me because Google thinks my Madrid server is in France.
There's no real good options here, different people use different databases of different ages with different procedures to update (if they have one at all). MaxMind (http://maxmind.com) is pretty good at updates, as are most of the free options (like ip2location http://www.ip2location.com/ [ip2location.com]). Google (which powers a lot of ads, and their own country redirect) has a form (https://support.google.com/websearch/contact/ip) which seems to pipe directly into /dev/null.
Most GeoIP providers want to handle things in large blocks, not one IP at a time. If you can convince your ISP (generally by pointing them at a few forms) to send in corrections they'll be able to correct their entire IP space all at once, which may be handled faster, or at least cover you now and next time your IP changes. Once these are submitted expect a delay of 2weeks -> before anything starts to get better.
Beyond trying to correct people, buying a cheap server from Linode and VPNing through should be a decent work around. If you set up an OpenVPN server, several routers are capable of connecting and routing all their data through them automatically, so you wont need to configure each device individually. Linode is a decent option as their servers are fast, stable, and you'll effectively only pay for half your symmetric bandwidth as inbound is free.
good luck :(
https://wonderproxy.com/ (Score:1)
Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from wonderproxy.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).
Back to safety
NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID
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when the doofuses start updating the geoip databases based on gps location information provided by the browser and such browser users are using vpn - everything breaks.
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Stop visiting crappy pages where you can't select your language or currency and where the content is filtered depending on where you are.
Yes. Just abandon the internet entirely.
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Yes. Just abandon the internet entirely.
In five years the "I gave up cable TV ... and my life is so great" meme that appears in /. every time a discussion even touches on how bad cable TV providers are will have morphed into "I gave up the internet ... and my life is so great".
Yes, you can subscribe to my newsletter.
Which W3C is this? (Score:2)
Is this the same W3C that is responsible for HTML standards and reminding me how bad I am at proper syntax?
W3C does geolocation? (Score:3)
I didn't even know W3C did geolocation (like Maxmind). Is there any chance you're talking about a page that uses the W3C geolocation API? That is, you're talking about what result some Javascript gets when it asks your web browser "where am I?"
If I'm not mistaken and that's what you're talking about, then look up how your browser gets its location.
If I'm mistaken and W3C actually has a ip-to-geo thing, oops, never mind. No idea what you're going to do about their database being wrong.
Re:W3C does geolocation? (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, I was thinking this guy's got it all backwards. If MaxMind et al are already showing the right position, then the problem is the location returned by the W3C API call in his unspecified browser which depends on which location service his browser uses (possibly not the default), and whether his device is GPS-equipped.
In the absence of GPS, Firefox defaults to using Google Location Service (according to https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/... [mozilla.org] ), which is not one of the 4 "providers" listed at http://whatismyipaddress.com/ [whatismyipaddress.com] and could easily be the one database that's wrong, causing his confusion. I expect Chrome to do the same. IE may use a Microsoft-provided IP database, again separate from the four above -- I couldn't find confirmation of this.
For servers that don't rely on W3C javascript calls to get your location, it all entirely depends on which service they subscribe to, which you may not be able to find out. Short of submitting corrections to "all of them", you're just out of luck.
Re:W3C does geolocation? (Score:4, Funny)
You'll save money for a decade or two until eventually somebody gets angry enough to try to correct the mistake!
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This only really works if you have a VPN with an exit point in Luxembourg or the Netherlands, and use tor over that to an exit point in Bermuda.
Re: W3C does geolocation? (Score:1)
It happened simulteneously on two osx comouters, safari and firefox, and six windows computers ( vista and 7) using Firefox and chrome.
The fact that it happened instantly everywhere is why I assumed it was an ip address in a database related issue.
It also appears to not be a problem for laptops, for which I assume mapped wifi is over-riding ip address
And yes, I have it all so wrong I couldn't even Google a solution (I tried).
Re: W3C does geolocation? (Score:1)
I will look into it. I simply was going by the provider column at the linked page.
It's weird to me that providers 'a' through 'd' have my address right and w3c lists it in Ireland. It happened simulteneously to every desktop in the shop.
It's quite annoying. I definitely do not know what's going on, as I couldn't find a solution on Google and resorted to this.
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Well, this explains why I had trouble searching.
W3C is listed as a seperate provider in tables, here: http://whatismyipaddress.com/l... [whatismyipaddress.com] (note, they chopped the direct link in my original post), and here: http://whatismyipaddress.com/g... [whatismyipaddress.com]
Note, in the first link, everything except W3C is listed as correct, which is even more baffling for me, because somewhere the wrong information is being received, and it happened everywhere in the shop at once, across platforms.
Re:What what WHAT? (Score:5, Informative)
Note, in the first link, everything except W3C is listed as correct, which is even more baffling for me, because somewhere the wrong information is being received, and it happened everywhere in the shop at once, across platforms.
You've got it all wrong as to where the problem lies.
First, there are two ways being used to calculate your geolocation. One of them uses online providers who have databases mapping IP addresses to locations. This is what you're seeing in the "Provider X" columns, which you state are indeed showing your correct location.
W3C doesn't provide a geolocation service. Instead, what the results of this (admittedly badly named) column indicate are what YOUR COMPUTER reports its location as being, using the W3C Geolocation API. The first link you provided above describes this succinctly in the text immediately above the map, where it states "The W3C Geolocation service determins location by the browser providing GPS location (if available) and signal strengths of visible WiFi annoucements" [sic]. Thus, the web page is asking your browser to report where it is located, and your browser is responding that you're somewhere in Ireland.
The question for you then becomes: where is my browser getting this bad data from? On Mac OS X, browsers get this from the Core Location Framework. While Core Location Framework can conceivably use a number of different factors to determine your location, typically it uses the detectable WiFi beacons in your area, mapping their SSIDs and MAC addresses, and their relative strengths to triangulate your location. On Windows it uses the Sensor and Location Platform to do much the same thing.
I don't know much in the way of details of the databases Apple and Microsoft are using on the backend to map your triangulated location based on SSIDs/MACs of visible WiFi access points, however there are a few ways the system can go wrong:
The fact that all your systems had this problem at the same time indicate it's probably one of the above. You can try to fix the situation by changing the SSID of your access point. Depending on the size of your facility, this may be more or less difficult, however it should hopefully make the incorrect results from your OSs' location services either report the correct location, or simply that your location is unknown. You may also need to change the MAC address of your access point(s), but I'd save that as a last resort. Note than making these changes should fix the issue with your systems reporting themselves as being in Ireland, but it may not result in them reporting the correct location (they might report they don't know their location at all). That's okay -- for Apple devices at least, you can fix this by simply having someone with an iPhone with Location Service enabled in the vicinity (Apple's data is crowd sourced automatically through the use of GPS co-ordinates and relative WiFi access point signal strengths (I'm not sure how Microsoft collects the information for their database, so I can't help you there -- a Google search might provide some answers).
HTH!
Yaz
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Thank you. It's not a wifi issue, as the laptops actually get it right, but a very helpful post, thanks.
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and remember to record the conversation!
Only if its legal to do so in Ireland.
Geolocation needs to die (Score:5, Insightful)
Geolocation needs to die. Every site that uses it assumes that my location is a perfect indicator of my language preferences. Real helpful to have all websites in a language I don't understand whenever I'm traveling through Eastern Europe or Asia.
I sure wish someone had thought of a standardized way for people to automatically let websites know their language preferences. Oh wait, that already exists [wikipedia.org].
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It exists, but it's widely wrong. Considerably more wrong than geolocation unless you happen to speak US English.
Damn the good luck.
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Amen, sibling. I was reading the OP, thinking "Welcome to the rest of the world, American, this is what the other several billion of us have to put up with all the freakin' time".
Geolocation needs to die in a fire. Its only purpose is to sell more ads, and it's not even very good at that.
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If the complaint is about the location provided by the browser itself, then: Firefox: about:config - > geo.enabled - user set - boolean - false
Been that way since FF started to support geolocation.
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Install a VPN-faker (Score:2)
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The downside to Ireland... (Score:5, Funny)
Tell your company to stop using Ireland as a tax haven.
YOUR BROWSER is supplying this information... (Score:1)
First off, please don't post links to crappy sites that make you force-quit your browser and make nonsense statements like this:
> The W3C Geolocation service determins location by the browser providing GPS location (if available) and signal strengths of visible WiFi annoucements.
W3C Geolocation is a standard for some Javascript functions that browsers can implement to allow sites to get geolocation information. It is up to each browser's author to decide to implement it or not, and what method(s) they wi
Re:YOUR BROWSER is supplying this information... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your browser supplies HTML5 Geolocation. But it sounds like the submitter is having problems with GeoIP detection. That's a server-side issue and relies on subscription databases for identifying where physically on the globe an IP might map to. It's also horribly inaccurate as the submitter has found.
Funniest one I've seen... (Score:5, Funny)
One of my customers is located in Southern California, but Sun's (now Oracle's) servers refused to give them Java updates because they were geolocated as being in Iran.
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As the IPv4 jar is running empty and more and more people are trading IP-addresses around the world, this problem will become bigger. Anyway, IP-adresses were never meant to determine which language you speak.
Oh, and we should move to IPv6.
If you're really an American the Gov't will help. (Score:2)
IP Detection is different from HTML5 (Score:2)
Short Answer:
Signup for a VPN or Proxy service with an exit point in the region you want.
Longer Answer:
IP-based geography detection (GeoIP for short) depends on the databases and services that various providers are leveraging. It's inherently inaccurate. Good luck getting these fixed as there are a bunch of different services (including the W3C) that you would need to get updated. Are you sure your routing exit point isn't actually in Ireland? My company's IP address maps to an exit point in San Francisco,
You're Lucky It's the Same Langauge (Score:2)
Capitulate (Score:1)
Broken Geolocation Is Good (Score:2)
I use a browser extension called Secret Agent from https://www.dephormation.org.u... [dephormation.org.uk]. This works with Gecko-based browsers (e.g., Firefox, SeaMonkey) on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems. It sends fake HTTP headers to confuse Web servers that are trying to track my browsing activities. This causes many geolocation routines to give wrong results. I have Secret Agent set to change its faked headers on every HTTP request sent from my browser.
While composing this comment, I tested a few sites. One had me on
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Any reported locations on comets yet?
http://io9.com/xkcd-animates-t... [io9.com]
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Oh believe me we'd love it if everything magically changed over to the new date. But using them interchangeably is not so fun, like when your bill says it's due on 2/1/2014.
Wrong location (Score:3)
It can be frustrating. While at the "Lockn Festival" in Virginia, my phone kept thinking it was in Scottsdale, Arizona. The weather reports were bad enough, but the worst part was the time on my phone kept coming up in Mountain time, so I was always 2 hours behind. I think that issue was because they brought in mobile towers, since that rural part of Virginia doesn't normally have any mobile coverage, and I guess someone forgot to set the location on the towers.
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Potentially a nightmare... (Score:2)
I vacationed in the UK recently and because I was using an IP from a different country than usual, both Google and Yahoo decided to lock up my accounts with their services in ways that potentially could only be resolved in ways that may not have been available because I was abroad (text/call to phone and/or logging in from a previous logged location). Fortunately, I was not relying on either of these services for anything critical such as booking confirmation numbers and did happen to have ways to re-enable
Use extensions (Score:1)
ISO-8601 (Score:2)
That sounds like a bug fix to me, to be honest.