IP address reveals home location - how to conceal?

usignuolo

I was looking at the BBC website recently when I saw they were running a questionnaire about how you have been affected by the postal strike. I clicked on it and got prompted to say if I was getting regular deliveries, complete with a map showing where I lived!

OK that was on my desktop PC, but today I am using my laptop, which is wireless. One one webpage I visited, a pop up appeared, saying Hi there, I also live in xxxxxxx (my home town) fancy a drink?

I don't want my home address being linked to my IP address in this way (I assume this is the reason), can I stop it happening and if so how? (I access the internet via Virgin formerly Telewest)

elvch01

You can either
change ISP to one which gives out different IP addresses whenever the router is rebooted be.g. talktalk
or
use a 3rd party proxy server.

Third party proxy servers generally slow-down internet access unacceptably IMO. IP address GEO-mapping is only approximate & only gives a general locality/town at best, so your address/personal details are perfectly safe

John_Gray

usignuolo wrote: »

I don't want my home address being linked to my IP address in this way (I assume this is the reason), can I stop it happening and if so how? (I access the internet via Virgin formerly Telewest)

Your only real solution is to move!

Seriously, your IP address will point to your local Virgin Media UBR location. Click on this and the four character code before virginmedia.com, or blueyonder.co.uk, or whatever, is the 'name' of your UBR's location. The whole string is called your 'host name'.

You may not like this, but that's the way it is...

usignuolo

Well the BBC website was not just showing a map of the town where I live but pinpointed my post code area. And the pop up which wanted to go on a date with me (!) named my town which is not the location of the nearest virgin access hub but the next town over so it must be passing out more specific information out on my whereabouts or there must be software around which is harvesting this.

Besides talk talk do all the other ISps do this?

tezbomb

Can't post the link...

Do a search for hotspot shield and download that. Once you run the application it gives you and American IP address.

I downloaded so I could use the HULU website.

John_Gray

usignuolo wrote: »

So do all ISPs do this or is it specific to Virgin? If I move who should I move to?

It isn't "done by the ISP", it's the way the internet works! Each ISP is allocated a range of IP addresses, and depending on how big they are and how they are organised the geographical location of your specific IP address will be good or poor. I am in Gloucester, and my local UBR is STAVerton, a few miles north, by the 'airport'. Have a look at the section saying "Internet Hostnames" in this Wikipedia article. Or this lengthier and more technical article...

john_s_2

It's the same way your telephone dialling code narrows down where you live to quite a small radius in some cases.

buglawton

But what is spooky is that most WiFi routers in the UK have been individually logged by a U.S. company (yes, by peeps driving around with a GPS logging system). Anyone in range of your WiFi will be told where they are to within 20 metres, by your router's unique ID!

robt_2

buglawton wrote: »

But what is spooky is that most WiFi routers in the UK have been individually logged by a U.S. company (yes, by peeps driving around with a GPS logging system). Anyone in range of your WiFi will be told where they are to within 20 metres, by your router's unique ID!

I don't see why it is spooky at all. It is not as if your name and address are tied to your router.

thor

tezbomb wrote: »

Can't post the link...

Do a search for hotspot shield and download that. Once you run the application it gives you and American IP address.

I downloaded so I could use the HULU website.

Can you do me a favour and see if you can watch episodes at nbc 's website(more specifically The Jay Leno Show). If it does then this is exactly what I have been looking for.

456789

bbc doesn't have ads like that - you have spyware or it came from a different site

it isn't really much to worry about - these ads reverse dns everyone