Technology: not quite as clever as it thinks.

[bunn]

I've been really dubious about the much talked up technology which pinpoints a user's location from an IP address for many years (it has got better, to be fair). I just don't see how it could work, without all sorts of information that isn't in the public domain being released by a load of independent private companies without the user's permission in a dubiously-legal kind of way.

So, I was pleased to see my suspicions confirmed by this : http://whatismyipaddress.com/

It thinks I'm between Cambridge and Ipswich. Now I am intrigued as to why. I'm not there, my ISP isn't there, and last time I spoke to them, the routing for my account was done from near Reading. So, what is it there in the East that it's picking up? I'd love to know.

It did get my country right, which is an improvement over my Claranet days when checkers of this kind always insisted that I must be in Germany.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

The site thinks I'm somewhere north of Skipton, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. While conjuring up picturesque windswept images, it's about 200 miles away from where I am.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

How very odd. It seems unlikely there is some mighty network centre up there that you are somehow connected to. You must be surrounded by closer datacentres ...

[purplecat]

I'm just north of Skipton too...

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Me too. And I'm fairly certain I don't have the same ISP as parrot_knight, at least.

[sigisgrim.livejournal.com]

And it says I'm placed at Aldbury, between Dunstable and Hemel Hempstead, which is wrong, wrong, wrong. I should be connecting either in Birmingham (according to ADSL) or in London (according to ISP). It does get the IP address right, though.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... got mine right on the money. Well, as close as can be, given that the map never heard of my little town, and considers it part of the next one over.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

This confirms my suspicion that the technology was built for the US market, where I understand IP addresses are allocated differently and are easier to trace to the local level.

Perhaps they should have gone for one giant arrow over the UK with 'You are Somewhere In Here' on it.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

And way out in the Atlantic, the legend reads "There be dragons here"

[the-marquis.livejournal.com]

He,he,he cheers for turning that up I'm in London H9 apparently

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

Ooh, three miles out. Maybe the North-east is similar to the US in some relevant way? *boggle*

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Ooo, a correct result!

According to RIPE your IP address is described as ' Range2 NewcastleUT' so it looks like Orange/Wanadoo are trying to tie things down geographically. But the map location isn't coming from the RIPE database, because according to RIPE my IP belongs in Lancashire, where my ISP lives...

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I think I've just blown your US market theory. I'm at my Mom's house in New York, and it thinks I'm out on Long Island. That's at least a 2-hour drive from here, bridge traffic permitting. Can we blame it on gremlins?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh excellent! That means it almost certainly doesn't work properly *anywhere at all*.

This makes me very happy. I know that's a bit odd!