IP Address in Derby, I'm in London

tincat

Hi - can anyone help?

My IP address shows as being in Derby. What causes this? I thought that servers / service providers could see through all routing to be able to see where a computer originates from. I'm not overly techie, so if anyone could explain this I'd be v. grateful.

I would really like to be able to see Adwords which are targeted at the london market, and at present I can't, as the 'ether' sees me as being in Derby. I can only see country wide adwords. I know I can use the google preview tool, but I don't think that reflects normal adwords properly.

Thanks

esuhl

Your IP address and network connection is provided by your ISP. Effectively your computer asks your ISP to access a website, your ISP makes the connection and forwards the content to you. Thus the website you are connecting to "sees" the connection as originating from your ISP, which is presumably in Derby.

It's like you asking your friend in Derby to collect a parcel for you. The person providing the parcel sees your Derby-based friend, not knowing that they will pass the parcel on to you.

vyseyboy

IP's were never really meant to be used to determine location. It's fairly commonly done to find out what country a user orginates from, even though this can be wrong.

A while back, a certain UK ISP was issuing IP's that showed up in the US, and didn't allow them access to iPlayer etc. I can't remember who it was though.

Mine shows as the Isle of Man! I'm in Scotland. No wonder my lag is horrible.

Marty_J

Mine says I'm in Bradford.

I'm sure its lovely there.

Paul_Herring

What causes this?

The last person to have that IP and updated a geolocation database somewhere was in Derby. Or at least said that IP was being used in Derby.

Geolocation services aren't, as you've seen, 100% accurate; nor were they ever meant to be.

ormus

when i was with AOL it always showed me as being in California!

tincat

Thanks for all your replies.

Isn't Google's geo targeting then very risky? People may think they're targeting all users in a particular catchment area, but if everyone's ip shows them as being in timbuktoo when they are in grimsby or whatever, then they are missing out on their most likely prospects.

shadowdragon

Marty_J wrote: »

Mine says I'm in Bradford.

I'm sure its lovely there.

Its not, trust me I was born there LOL. Its so great there I dont live there anymore. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Paul_Herring

tincat wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies.

Isn't Google's geo targeting then very risky? People may think they're targeting all users in a particular catchment area, but if everyone's ip shows them as being in timbuktoo when they are in grimsby or whatever, then they are missing out on their most likely prospects.

Risky? Only if, for example, they were using geolocation solely based on IP for VoIP 999 calls

Otherwise, no. Anyone who is using geolocation of IP addresses in any seriousness, should be well aware of this limitation.

old_codger1

This might be worth reading for those interested in such things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol

When a DHCP-configured client (be it a computer or any other network-aware device) connects to a network, the DHCP client sends a broadcast query requesting necessary information from a DHCP server. The DHCP server manages a pool of IP addresses and information about client configuration parameters such as the default gateway, the domain name, the DNS servers, other servers such as time servers, and so forth. Upon receipt of a valid request the server will assign the computer an IP address, a lease (the length of time for which the allocation is valid), and other IP configuration parameters, such as the subnet mask and the default gateway. The query is typically initiated immediately after bootingIP-based communication with other hosts. and must be completed before the client can initiate

The allocation of your IP address happens before you can get any websites, emails or whatever.

old_codger1

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Anyone who is using geolocation of IP addresses in any seriousness, should be well aware of this limitation.

Trust me, they are.