Search Engines Thinking Im in a different Country (USA)

[Deepee1]

For some weeks now all my search results for Products and Services return a USA result List, If I open google Maps it thinks im in Washington DC when Im in Oxfordshire.  All PC's and phones within the house connected to the network act Exactly the same, no VPN's are running and havent been.

All Ads on things like youtube are all now 100% American orientated

I have reasearched Google and Chrome issues on the subject but nothing I find fixes the issue all accounts are correctly configured to UK and the correct region.  Given that it effects all devises attached to our network, phones & PC's this has lead me to the fact that it must be something to do with the way BT is routing my IP.

Please can anyone shed some light on the issue, it really is beginning to drive me crazy ???

[c64z86]

Hi Depee,

Your issue sounds similar to someone else who recently had the same trouble!

This is the forum post about it, if it helps to know someone else has this trouble:

https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/Google-Safari-amp-YouTube-show-my-location-in-P...

But please can I ask:

1) What location does it show in a "What is my IP address site" for you? Please do not screenshot and show us, but does it show you as being in the UK on there? Does it show you as being in the UK on both the IPV4 and IPV6 parts of the site?

I can't link it here but it can be found with a Google search.

2) Do you have the same trouble in other search engines like Bing/Yahoo/Duckduckgo or just in Google?

[Deepee1]

Thanks for the response and the issue appears to be the same, my IPs are listed as UK.

What's now strange and makes me think this is a Google problem now and not a BT one is that If I use Bing and Edge as the default browser and search engine all is well, all results come back as UK and in GBP. However when I use Google as the default search engine and sign into my Google account it all reverts to US and USD no matter whether it's chrome or edge.

Then if I use Bing as the default search engine for chrome, all in GBP again.

I'm sure now this is a Google Problem and not a UK/BT issue even though all our locations are set correctly.

[c64z86]

Yeah it is a weird issue for sure!

The other poster found out that his IP address was blacklisted by Google for some reason only known to them. Maybe it's a similar problem for you?

I wouldn't know the first thing about how to solve such an issue sorry, if it is the cause.

But at least, like the other person, most of the internet knows you are in the UK though! 😆

[Deepee1]

Of the Blacklist there are only 2 that show the IP as Blacklisted, Im happy thats not the case and this is potentially a Googleizm.

Thank you for the assistance.

[NeilO]

Hi @Deepee1 I agree this sounds like a problem with your Google region settings. I found this help article which you might find useful See results for a different country - Android - Google Search Help

Thanks

Neil

[Deepee1]

Neil, thank you yes I've seen that and checked these settings, my home location, language and search setting are all set to UK.

One point to note is that it is EVERY computer on the network that has the issue which can be up to 5 at any one time, irrespective of what Google account is logged in.

Thank you for the response.

[NeilO]

@Deepee1 That's strange, if possible turn off your Hub for 15 mins to try and get an alternative IP address allocated to your connection.

Thanks

Neil

[Deepee1]

Thank Neil I'll try that, I did reboot it yesterday with our change. I will certainly try an extended period to try and force an IP change at the exchange end.

Thanks.

[NeilO]

@Deepee1leave it for as long as possible for the best chance, 15 to 20 mins at a minimum.

Neil