Point of Presence - Location Estimation

[freypal]

I was just moved over to a Smart Hub 2 due to being put onto digital voice. Now my broadband connection seems to be choosing a point of presence in Dublin - which is pretty frustrating as living in England I would like things like google search and google maps to know where I am. Google search defaults to giving .IE results and maps thinks I'm in Dublin...

I've tried restarting the hub several times and nothing seems to want to change... Any ideas on how I can update this?

[Keith_Beddoe]

@freypal 

Your location is determined by which POP (Point Of Presence)  node you are connected to, which can be anywhere in the UK.

Each time your IP address changes, you are likely to get a different location. Your IP address would most likely to change if you restart or disconnect your home hub.

Some location services like Google, allow you to update your true location using a GPS connected phone, and going into Google maps.

[freypal]

I've tried restarting the hub multiple times and each time the PoP goes to Dublin....  Is there anything BTs side which could be fixing this rather than letting it re-select?

[Keith_Beddoe]

Nothing BT can do, you need to rely on GPS to get the correct location.

[freypal]

Well I don't choose the PoP - it's assigned each time I connect to the BT network. So it's down to BT isn't it? And they're giving me a PoP outside of the UK?

[Keith_Beddoe]

The POP can be anywhere, and bears no relation to your actual location, and never has.

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers and will not be able to deal with any issues relating to your account.

[freypal]

I get that - my issue is having one assigned to Dublin (outside of the UK) means internet browsing defaults to giving me international search results. 

I have literally never had this issue before. It could give me a PoP anywhere in the UK and I wouldn't have a problem. 

[ptrduffy]

I'm fairly certain that Google guesses your location based on your IP address and other information like WiFi SSIDs that are available, rather than any "Point of Presence" (which doesn't really make sense for end-users in today's Internet architecture).

Unfortunately, Geo-location using IP addresses is error-prone, as you are seeing.  You can check what location the main GeoIP databases give you here: https://www.iplocation.net/

Errors in GeoIP are not down to the ISP (whether BT or anyone else).

You can report issues to Google here: https://support.google.com/websearch/workflow/9308722?hl=en

[Keith_Beddoe]

Similar post https://community.bt.com/t5/The-Lounge/My-home-location-showing-on-Maps-type-apps-is-wrong/m-p/23205...