In reply to a post by Toothy_Chris:

Most internet connectivity is fine, but I cannot get to E-Bay UK because I get the following error message

I'll send you a private message about this

seb

hi, wondering if you've made any progress from HB with this issue yet?

Yesterday ( Wed 26 April), my Xbox was no longer able to login with the error message saying the service not available in this region, and I also noticed that Disney+ gave a message saying that it looked like I was travelling, and I also get the same eBay message - clearly something up with the IP address allocation & geolocation, but the strange thing is that services like Netflix & BBC iPlayer seem to pick up UK content & don't have any issues.

To test the theory, I used my phone as a wifi hotspot, connected the xbox to it, and everything worked (albeit very slowly).

I've raised the issue with HB, sent them screen shots of the Xbox & Disney+ messages, and info about the network & geolocation - just waiting for them to respond, but wondered if you'd made any progress with them.

Edited by wymkeu (Thu 27-Apr-23 13:20:59)

Ok as this is widespread I'll post it here - some of the IPs in use by your provider may have been used in other countries in the past including ones which eBay may not want to do business with. This isn't entirely the provider's fault but some databases may be out of date causing the issues. It's up to the provider to fix the geolocation issues though

hi Seb,

I checked the RIPE database, and the range that HB are providing IP's from (or at least the IP that I have) are showing as owned & registered in Australia, however most of the whois IP sites are showing the addresses as in the UK. I'm assuming that services like iPlayer and Netflix are working as if in the UK, but others like Disney, Xbox & eBay aren't because they are using different databases to check geolocation.

It looks like HB are making use of a new range of IP's as part of their network changes this week that are causing issues, and (as you say) the provider needs to make sure the geo-location databases are correctly updated. We just need to hold tight & hope they are able to resolve them quickly.

In reply to a post by wymkeu:

hi Seb,

I checked the RIPE database, and the range that HB are providing IP's from (or at least the IP that I have) are showing as owned & registered in Australia, however most of the whois IP sites are showing the addresses as in the UK. I'm assuming that services like iPlayer and Netflix are working as if in the UK, but others like Disney, Xbox & eBay aren't because they are using different databases to check geolocation.

It looks like HB are making use of a new range of IP's as part of their network changes this week that are causing issues, and (as you say) the provider needs to make sure the geo-location databases are correctly updated. We just need to hold tight & hope they are able to resolve them quickly.

iPlayer et al won't use RIPE data but a geolocation provider (there are several). They may use RIPE data in parts but it's not generally considered accurate enough as RIPE is more about where the registry is based than exact location.

Chase your ISP about this.. it's their problem to fix ultimately..

In reply to a post by seb:

iPlayer et al won't use RIPE data but a geolocation provider (there are several). They may use RIPE data in parts but it's not generally considered accurate enough as RIPE is more about where the registry is based than exact location.

Chase your ISP about this.. it's their problem to fix ultimately..

Quite, they brought the ips, its part of their job to make sure they are clean for users to be able use without being blocked.

On the flip side, its poor that geolocation providers don't check that the data they hold is right.

In reply to a post by Taras:

On the flip side, its poor that geolocation providers don't check that the data they hold is right.

Geolocation providers will look at location based on multitude of information from routing to RIPE etc.. but that's a one off check. If the IP blocks are sold or rented, they wouldn't necessarily know about this for a while so it's generally up to the ISP to contact them to fix this and they all have processes for it.

One example to earlier query about why VPN works is it could be RPKI enforcement or using IPv6 for VPN which works which avoids these issues. I know the IP block I checked earlier has a Valid ROA now but maybe it wasn't before. Some providers check RPKI some don't. Either way iplayer etc is your provider's issue to resolve.


seb

Quick update - late afternoon I lost all connectivity & noticed that the router no longer had an IP address. Called HB tech support and spoke to them for a bit (nice person, but nothing useful came of the call), and was told it should all be fixed today.

Checked back a couple hours later, router had an IP address (different range from before), and everything was working again - xbox, eBay, Disney etc... with no issues.

Not sure if the original poster issue is fixed, but given I commented here, thought I'd say mine seems to be working now, so hopefully others will be fixed too.

I see things have been busy on here - sorry, I was working today....

So, when I started work this morning (I work from home) I noticed that I could not access any of my work VPN servers, in addition to the problems we were having with XBox and E-Bay.

Late this afternoon our Hey! connection dropped for a few minutes and then returned with a different external IP address. At that point everything seems to work again, apart from E-Bay. This evening (on the same IP address) even that had returned, so - touch wood - I think we are now back up and running with a full service.

Thanks again to all who got involved in the discussion.


Chris

In reply to a post by wymkeu:

Checked back a couple hours later, router had an IP address (different range from before), and everything was working again - xbox, eBay, Disney etc... with no issues.

You're on an IP block which I think has been UK based for longer

seb