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Hi there.
A little before Christmas I moved house taking all my vm services with me.
What I have noticed is that on google maps it still shows my current location as my old property.
I'm assuming it's done by ip addreses or similar.
If so is there something vm need to update on their end (for the broadband side of it)
does that make sense?!
Thanks
djmagnifique
04-03-2010, 19:52
When I go on google maps it starts with my street showing. in the left where info and directions come up it shows my post code and 'change default location' underneath it.
Thanks for the tip!
But I see that as a workaround.
Why isn't it automatically showing the correct location?
Do they need to update the system?
Could this be the reason my speed has more than halved?!
Cheers
1/4 mile (ish)
but the blue dot on google (the location) is exactly where it was before.
---------- Post added at 20:09 ---------- Previous post was at 20:08 ----------
The dot is on the roof of my old property! lol!
You may still be connected to the same part of the network so Google may assume you are still where you were
Right ok cheers For that.
That sounds about right.
No big deal then.
Cheers
djmagnifique
04-03-2010, 22:51
Just a quick question, since when has google maps been able to detect where you live and how do you make it do it?
It cant.
You cannot tell a persons exact location from their ip address (except on tv shows of course).
(and before the smart alecs point out that VM can, I obviously mean without access to VMs account systems etc).
It cant.
You cannot tell a persons exact location from their ip address (except on tv shows of course).The geolocation must do something interesting then because it worked out exactly where I was down the road when I tried it earlier
And that was in a clean browser session with no previous cookies or anything else it could use.
Graham M
04-03-2010, 23:52
Using this API (not sure of the specifics) - http://code.google.com/apis/gears/api_geolocation.html
Still don't understand how it can get such an accurate fix without GPS - it's a little bit scary lol
Geolocation is used by loads of sites (for example when you go to a torrent site and you get them annoying pop-ups pretending to be a MSN messenger girl in your area looking to chat.. :p: )
With VM it's easy for the geolocation to work as google has a complete list of UBR's and a site using googles geolocation always puts me in a town about 4 miles North West.. Where others not using google tend to put me about 8 miles North..
The town or exchange location (as I'm on ADSL at the moment) I can understand.
It's the street I can't work out how they do it - because it's not something they can work out from the IP address.
As it's on a proper PC rather than a Mobile what else can they access as I've not got GPS and there are no mobile networks it can use for triangulation
They can;t do a street level unless they can pinpoint either an exchange on the street or perhaps a google account with address matching the IP (not sayign they do that but it'd be about the only way)
Perhaps the OP lived right next to a UBR or map center and since they've moved only 400meters away the google maps will stay showing the same location
I'm talking about me here ;)
A clean geolocation search in a fresh download of a Firefox got my house exactly.
I'm talking exact enough that it puts the blue dot on my front door!
Well it won't be from just your IP not unless you live next to a geolocatable item
Not that I can identify I'm in the middle of residential area and 1km away from the exchange. No open WiFI connections either (but it use them on a PC anyway?)
You still seems to assume that it's purely dealing with the physical line from the internet to your PC :rolleyes:
You still seems to assume that it's purely dealing with the physical line from the internet to your PC :rolleyes:
I'm assuming its purely dealing with the IP address yes - because I've not provided it with any other information
What is odd is the geolocation in Firefox and Chrome are accurate to my front door - even in the 'Private' browsing sessions.
On my Android handset it gets it close but is out by around 100m (with or without WiFi turned on)
It gives my location as the middle of town. A few miles from where I am.
I'm assuming its purely dealing with the IP address yes - because I've not provided it with any other information
How do you know what information it's accessing? As I said earlier it could be matching your IP to for example a google account or millions of other bits of info that we leave in the public domain
Graham M
05-03-2010, 11:55
Does your computer have Wireless? Do you have Google Earth?
I have both - must hook into those then
I've just tried it in a Virtual XP install on Chrome - in that it just shows as Manchester
Graham M
05-03-2010, 12:05
Yeah I beleive it is able to triangulate you with the posiiton of other people's wireless networks and if you have Google Earth installed, have you set your home location?
Ah ha. Found this:
Q. How does Google know my location?
A. Google Maps makes use of your web browser's Geolocation feature to determine your location. When you activate the My Location feature, your browser will ask whether you're happy to share your location with Google Maps. If you agree, your browser will attempt to determine your location. This involves analyzing the Wi-Fi access points around you and your computer's IP address, and sending this information to a Google server to then be translated into a location that we can show on the map.
Still scary how accurate it is just off WiFI and IP address
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