Re: Incorrect IP Geolocation

On Mon, 21 Jul 2014 21:34:54 +0200, Ryan Masciovecchio <ryanm@aareas.com>  
wrote:

>
> Charles, you told me W3C does not keep an internal database of these  
> geolocations.  And that organizations use an internal database of wifi  
> >routers.  Do you mean the wifi access point in our office is giving off  
> some sort of information that it’s from London?  It’s a dedicated  
> >access point not built into any router and has been in our office for  
> 5+ years now

No, but it sends out an identifier. When people know where they are (e.g.  
through GPS, or manual tracking of their location) and pick up a  
signalfrom your wifi point, they can add it to a database.

Using triangulation, they should be able to get a pretty accurate fix on  
it if they want one. But equally, with so many wifi points in the world,  
there is plenty of scope for getting a location wrong from time to time.

Cheers

>
> .
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Ryan Masciovecchio | Network Administrator
> AAREAS INTERACTIVE AAREAS.COM
> P. 416.661.1095 x248 | F. 416.661.1568 | E. RyanM@Aareas.com
>
>
> Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail or its  
> attachments.
>
>
> From: Michael van Ouwerkerk [mailto:mvanouwerkerk@google.com]Sent:  
> Thursday, July 10, 2014 7:27 AM
> To: Charles McCathie Nevile
> Cc: public-geolocation@w3.org; Ryan Masciovecchio
> Subject: Re: Incorrect IP Geolocation
>
>
> Hi Ryan, thanks for the detailed report! It does sound like some piece  
> of data is wrong. I've reported an internal bug to the Google geo >team,  
> so they can check whether this is a problem on their end.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 9, 2014 at 9:04 PM, Charles McCathie Nevile  
> <chaals@yandex-team.ru> wrote:
>>
>> (Short version: This is probably Google's fault. More detail below)
>>
>> On Wed, 09 Jul 2014 18:00:57 +0200, Ryan M <ryanm@aareas.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi, for some reason our public IP address at our office is showing the  
>>> incorrect geolocation...
>>
>>
>>>
>>> The geolocation is correctly showing on Maxmind, ip2location, and  
>>> Neustar (ipintelligence), but not with W3C.  I have confirmed >>>that  
>>> using whatismyipaddress.com.  As a result, our google searches are  
>>> giving us results based on this incorrect location.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> A lot of other websites are also giving us incorrect location results
>>> as well.  I am assuming all of these websites are using the W3C HTML5
>>> standard incorporating W3C’s geolocation API into their websites.
>>
>>
>> They probably are, but that doesn't mean W3C is the source of your  
>> problem...
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I have already contacted my ISP who confirmed all their records map  
>>> our geolocation correctly to Toronto, Ontario.
>>
>>
>> OK, that is usually important.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> They have already confirmed with the registrars, ARIN and ICANN that it
>>> shows correct with them as well. So why does W3C still map our IP  
>>> address
>>> to the wrong location?  Does W3C keep an internal database of IP
>>> geolocations that needs to be updated?
>>
>>
>> No. Various organisations offer location lookup services. While these  
>> may be based on IP address, or use IP address, there are various  
>> >>other things they may take into account. A common one is to keep a  
>> database of wifi routers, on the (not very good) assumption that  
>> >>these don't move much.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> How can we get this updated?
>>
>>
>> If Google is getting it wrong, it seems reasonable to assume their  
>> location lookup service is doing something wrong - and it may be that  
>> >>others who get it wrong are relying on Google for that service (which  
>> in turn my rely on a 3rd party). I am afraid I don't know how you  
>> >>tell Google they made a mistake, but I am sure you can find that  
>> information somewhere.
>>
>> cheers
>>
>> Chaals
>>
>> --Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
>> chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com
>
>



-- 
Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
chaals@yandex-team.ru Find more at http://yandex.com