IP showing wrong location, any ideas?

chid76 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:17

I recently connected to sky broadband on the 28th June. I am still in the period where the line is settling and my speed is increasing over 10 days.
To keep an eye on my speed, I have been using speedtest.net and have noticed today that it has changed my location from London where I am based to Barnsley. I have also tried logging into Guildwars 2 and it has sent me an email asking if there is an unauthorized log in attempt as I am trying to connect from Barnsley?
I have called Sky and after speaking and waiting on hold for 40 mins the best advise they had was reset your router. They are going to look further into it and call me back within the hour.
Anyone got any ideas what could be causing this issue?

Thanks.

bremen1874 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:26

It isn't unusual for an IP to report the wrong location. The country should be correct, but anything more accurate can't be trusted.

With PlusNet for example you tend to get Sheffield or London depending on the gateway you're connecting to irrespective of your actual location.

Dropping and reconnecting could help as you'll probably connect to a different gateway.

KIA · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:35

This is normal.

Hyburnate · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:36

That's normal, I'm in Cheshire.

chid76 · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:41

The strange thing is, when I do a speed test now, it gives me pings of between 80-100 when using London servers and pings of about 33ish for Manchester? Maybe this is normal and I should not worry, but it never happened when I was on BE broadband so it's new to me!

Thanks.

d_brennen · 3 Jul 2013 at 18:41

When I was with BT in Northern Ireland, the IP would show as Glasgow. Close enough for me

BuZ · 5 Jul 2013 at 16:05

chid76 said:
I recently connected to sky broadband on the 28th June. I am still in the period where the line is settling and my speed is increasing over 10 days.
To keep an eye on my speed, I have been using speedtest.net and have noticed today that it has changed my location from London where I am based to Barnsley. I have also tried logging into Guildwars 2 and it has sent me an email asking if there is an unauthorized log in attempt as I am trying to connect from Barnsley?
I have called Sky and after speaking and waiting on hold for 40 mins the best advise they had was reset your router. They are going to look further into it and call me back within the hour.
Anyone got any ideas what could be causing this issue?

Thanks.

IP addresses are assigned from anywhere.

IPv4 is most likely the protocol you're using, since it is - IPv4 addresses are limited and less are created or there aren't many spaces left for the combinations to allow you for selecting your own address/location.

What are you using to check your IP address? If you're using a website/databased website to search IPs and check what host/location and servers you're connected to (remember these are third party websites). They will mostly be outdated by years. No one can get an accurate result unless you use GPS which tracks you down also.

Also, the internet is many/loads of routers, switches, gateways and cables connected together with master computers at either ends.

Although, usually ADSL based connections are more accurate on the location than of what Cable [fibre] based connections are.

My best bet is to leave your line switched off for 12 hours overnight. It will give your IP address to someone else and then you'll get a new one assigned. Usually, this works unless it has been stopped.

BuZ · 6 Jul 2013 at 02:49

chid76 said:
The strange thing is, when I do a speed test now, it gives me pings of between 80-100 when using London servers and pings of about 33ish for Manchester? Maybe this is normal and I should not worry, but it never happened when I was on BE broadband so it's new to me!

Thanks.

Don't trust the servers on Speedtest.net.

I get issues with those all the time.