Adverts - now in GREEK!

Adsense adverts Via Wifi seem to want to be in Greek.

The Google Play store too on my Tabley and her phone (Oddly, not mine and all 3 are Samsungs) also show Greek shizzle.

£ have been replaced with � and it's all very weird.

Is there something afoot that's changed?

I'm still with Vivaciti and it's still an LLU connection via Daisy Comms.

That's strange
If you have a fixed IP address (or are aware of the rough format if it was dynamic) has it changed?

You could also see what my old Geo Location test page makes of things.

Edited by b4dger (Sat 19-Oct-13 13:58:12)

Your site says Bedford.

It's really odd as her PC (Hard wired to Router) is connecting to .GR sites as default!

I have Chrome and turned off my adblock to see the ads pop up on YouTube... Nissan Greece lol.

This is Uber odd.

Try: https://www.maxmind.com/en/home

Matt

Mich got a report back off of Google stating Daisy Communications were routing through Greece.

It's appearing Daisy have altered their routing. But plonking my IP in that site you post Matt - says UK.

Sorry, I am totally confused on this thread.

Why do you need adverts?

Nick

The website GEO test uses Google's database of wifi access points - so it doesn't look like that.

...and what about my IP comments?

Keep up!

The OP doesn't, they are just trying to work out why their connection is suddenly reporting they are in Greece...

Let me explain it again for Lethe.

If I go on youtube for instance - some videos start with a little advert. Well, 1 week ago these adverts turned from English, to Greek.

Lets have a few examples (I'll turn adblock off so I can see all ad's)...

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad1.jpg

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad2.jpg

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad3.jpg

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad4.jpg

Now imagine going to Google Play on your phone via the Mobile signal and everything being in £ and English, but go onto WiFi and its Greek and in Euros!

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Now imagine going to Google Play on your phone via the Mobile signal and everything being in £ and English, but go onto WiFi and its Greek and in Euros!

You haven't got some Greek neighbours by any chance, and have somehow locked on to their wireless?

Possible if its signal is comparable to yours and it's not password protected.

No mate - checked the device pool on the router.

Oddly - Wake on Lan has stopped working too. Billion 7800N Router too.

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Oddly - Wake on Lan has stopped working too. Billion 7800N Router too.

Don't see why that should be connected, but you never know

Only other thing I can think of- Google ad settings?

Been playing in there and it is saying Daisy Communications (Who are supplying the BB via Vivaciti) is connecting via Greece...

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad5.jpg

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad6.jpg

As you can see - Google thinks I live in Greece! Or at the least it's my "Location".

If I click the link I gave it takes me to a page where I can set my language preference- it may be that the default is what it thinks is your location.

But it uses cookies it finds on my machine, so it may not take you to the same place. Any problem with deleting any Google-based cookies you have and trying my link again?

The issue there is... My PC, Her PC, My Laptop, Her iPad, My Tab, Our phones all do the same.

But will do it...

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Our phones all do the same.

But you say here that your phone is OK on the mobile signal, which probably is giving a different location, and if your language preference hasn't been explicitly set on any of the other devices they'll likely be using the default when you connect via your ISP.

It seems to make sense to me, whether it's correct is another matter entirely!

Yep - Mobile signal is fine... it's when I'm using my wifi.

Did a full reset - cleared the cookies, turned adblock off again...

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad7.jpg

Apt lol.

Oh and this changed 1-2 weeks ago out the blue. Never used to.

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Did a full reset - cleared the cookies, turned adblock off again...

But did you change your language preference to English in Google?

If you did then apologies... but it means one thing is certain- I'm stuck

It's 100% English. I have also Opted out all the ad's too.

It's more annoying that Google Play for instance comes up in Greek as a site... or sections of the site. Most odd.

Seems to me you have 2 options left:

a) persuade your ISP not to do silly routing

b) Learn Greek.

Good luck...

Or Move to Greece to prove the route right lol

Yup, that's one I hadn't thought of

It may be that Daisy / Vivaciti have started to allocate addresses from an IPv4 block previously used in Greece. This sort of thing may become more common as the IPv4 address space is fully allocated, meaning new allocations must be made by reallocating previously used IPv4 space. The effect is a bit like getting calls for the previous user of a reallocated phone number.

As a matter of interest, what does RIPE Whois say when you enter your IP address?


The geolocation databases are far from perfect. On my wired machines, which cannot send GPS data or Wi-Fi SSIDs, Google's geolocation engine is convinced I'm in Billericay. I have no idea why, as Zen are in the Manchester area and the /28 IPv4 block allocated to my network has been allocated to me (in Bedfordshire) since July 2005. You'd have thought Google would have noticed the only traffic from devices with GPS and/or Wi-Fi on our NAT IP address comes from Bedfordshire by now.

It's rare for the geolocation databases to have an IP address listed in the wrong country.


It is probably worth the original poster raising this issue with his ISP, as they should be able to persuade Google to correct the country data.

In reply to a post by billford:

Seems to me you have 2 options left:

a) persuade your ISP not to do silly routing

b) Learn Greek.

Good luck...

There is a third .....

Look for a Greek Interpreter

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad8.jpg

That's what RIPE gives.

I have logged it with the ISP - no doubt it'll be looked at Monday onwards.

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

There is a third .....

Look for a Greek Interpreter

Here's another one

You might want to get your ISP to fill this out, or you could also and Google might look at their data - as it appears other GeoIP databases are showing the correct information.

Matt

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

It's really odd as her PC (Hard wired to Router) is connecting to .GR sites as default!

What do you mean by this?

Google results are for Greece? Facebook comes up as Facebook.GR?

Bit misleading that... no - what I meant it the domain is correct (.com) but the site defaults to the Greek version.

Does seem to be anything connected with Google too.

http://www.the-rx.co.uk/ad6.jpg

Worth changing your dns servers.

208.67.222.222 (open dns)
or
8.8.8.8 (google)

What's the rest of that Youtube address line URL?

Mines http://www.youtube.com/?hl=en-GB&gl=GB , Note the 2 x GBs.

And the "en" for the English to which the first "GB" refers.

Always had it set at .com and it's always been GB.

Now it shows as GR - So I've altered my shortcut to .co.uk... still gives Greek adverts though.

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Always had it set at .com and it's always been GB.

Now it shows as GR - So I've altered my shortcut to .co.uk... still gives Greek adverts though.

Did you try different dns servers?

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

it's always been GB.
Now it shows as GR

You need to replace the 'B' on your keyboard; its bottom has rubbed off.

In reply to a post by PeterProxy:

In reply to a post by mr2gti:

Always had it set at .com and it's always been GB.

Now it shows as GR - So I've altered my shortcut to .co.uk... still gives Greek adverts though.

Did you try different dns servers?

It's a bit beyond me that. Any help on this further on what to do?

Also - Why would my Wake on Lan stop at the same time too?

If tracert's follow a UK path to UK sites then not a routing issue per se

The Geo IP issue for an IP block that has just had its RIPE assignment recently changed and Google not having seen that yet seems to be the issue.

Google does funny redirects on websites, which can make it difficult to see different countries copies of Google, e.g. Google.com redirects me to google.co.uk

Usually people spot this sort of issue when Geo located service like iPlayer refuse to stream.

But this isn't just YouTube. It's all sites that have Google adsense type adverts on them. Adblock is fine but it's not on my phone and tablet - so the little ads get through and are all in Greek.

So I'm totally lost - is it Google, or my provider?

The issue is as I said in the last paragraph of this post - though not as explicitly as I should have. The data in the Google geolocation database for your IP address wrongly places you in Greece, so all Google powered services (YouTube, Adsense etc.) believe you are in Greece. The RIPE Whois data being correct is a good sign, as it indicates the address block is correctly registered for its current use.

Google tend not to accept geolocation database corrections from members of the public, hence my suggestion to contact your ISP and ask them to send a correction to Google.

Cheers David - I have indeed found brickwalls galore trying to tell Google about this.

ISP is on it currently but I doubt I'll get too far. But, you never know

Update:

Vivaciti are changing my supplier to change the IP as it seems it's an utter ball ache to get Google to do anything about this.

So this time next week we should be back to normal.

Further update... GOOGLE has sorted it somehow, Location now back to UK.