WAN IP Location

Out of sheer curiosity, I was wondering if something recently is leaking my actual location.

Searching my WAN IP and its location recently using whatsmyip etc are showing accurate results. This has never been the case, it's usually London or Kent on EE yet recent IP's from EE on IPV4 are all returning accurate location details.

My mobile with the WiFi off on EE 4G returns results from all over the UK so it's not that.

Could it be my laptop?

It's not particularly an issue I am concerned about. Just got a keen interest in security and was wondering what had changed.

Google car driving past picking up WiFi would locate with approximate location. Some apps on phones are expected to do this, the obvious being the mapping apps, but third party systems (e.g. skyhook) also exist which have WiFi to location alignment.

Then if you're using EE's IPv6 network it is possible that EE know which mast you are connected to, and it gives a mast area location?

I'm on Virgin media and they know exactly which town I'm in now when I open google maps on a desktop PC. When I was on Plusnet, I used to appear randomly all over the UK.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

When I was on Plusnet, I used to appear randomly all over the UK.

Opposite for me, my Plusnet dynamic IP's seem to be assigned to tight clusters of IP addresses which geolocate me pretty closely.

Strangely enough on the EE mobile side of things, the IPV6 address location is always elsewhere.

It's the EE FTTC IPV4 address that seems to be spot on every time and the address does usually change on a resync.

Fascinating.

That�s a surprise as my friends still on plusnet across town are often geolocated as being in Oxford, whereas we are in Hampshire.

Possibly the same with EE then?

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

Possibly the same with EE then?

Yes, I guess they may have changed their IP addressing to assign IP addresses more consistently with the subscriber's location, as Plusnet seem to do for me.

It could be that EE has updated the WHOIS database to reflect a more local area for the range of IP addresses yours falls within - assuming that EE allocates its IP addresses on a regional or local level.

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

It could be that EE has updated the WHOIS database to reflect a more local area for the range of IP addresses yours falls within - assuming that EE allocates its IP addresses on a regional or local level.

I always wondered if that was possible, with the PPPoE (or oA) connections from the home terminating at some ISP hosted equipment in a handover exchange. I assumed there would be thousands of connections from all over a large region of the UK, coming together.

Unless the EE ISP is using some BTw service that means the termination is more local to the end user?