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Message 1 of 2

Will EE WiFi Hide My Location?

I’m being targeted and threatened when gaming on Xbox, but I want to keep playing. I didn’t realise until now, how accurate my IP address is in terms of my location. I thought it would just show my city (Liverpool), I never realised that it also showed my town (Birkenhead) and pinpoint my location within 2 miles of my house. I understand that nothing is likely to happen, but the threats are quite uncomfortable, and these guys have told me my location from my IP address.

I paid for and downloaded a VPN on my laptop, set it to London and then shared the connection via Ethernet to my Xbox. This works ok and obviously shows that I’m in London, but it’s annoying connecting this way and it gives me a strict NAT which makes online gaming a bit miserable.

Instead of using a VPN, I connected to EE WiFi on the Xbox and then went on the console’s browser to login and connect. Gaming on this was fine, and it gave me a moderate NAT which didn’t cause me any problems. Whenever I connect to this, it shows my location in a random UK city, and in the unlikely event that the city is Liverpool, the town and pinpoint location are always inaccurate.

I don’t know a lot about networking, so I just wanted to ask, will connecting through EE WiFi protect me like a VPN? Will it stop my location and my real IP address being exposed? I’m concerned it might not because obviously the hotspot I’m connected to is coming from my own hub, but I really want to know so that I feel more secure when gaming online.

The city and town I’ve stated are made-up to protect myself, but everything else still stands. Thanks for your help.

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Message 2 of 2

Re: Will EE WiFi Hide My Location?

Hi @Tom555,

Welcome to the BT Community

I am really sorry to hear you are being harassed and threatened when online and they have even went so far as telling you your location, I can understand feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Presumably they are on the Xbox platform so if you have not already I would report them and you can also report such harassment to the police online.

The EE public WiFi spots do work differently from your private broadband connection, traffic would be routed differently rather than to your local exchange, hence how your IP address on this public connection points to different locations. 

So it should obscure your location, though public WiFi can have its own safety concerns that are worth being aware of to stay safe when connected.

Alex

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