In reply to a post by jchamier:

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.

Large ISPs have POPs all over the country, with separate IP pools, so can geolocate to that level. However a small ISP may only have a single POP, with PPPoE/PPPoA sessions backhauled as L2TP over BTW's network.

I find it amusing when I am shown clickbait adverts like "Pensioners in Pinner are snapping up brilliant new hearing aid". I'm nowhere near Pinner - but that's roughly where my ISP (Cerberus) are based.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Large ISPs have POPs all over the country, with separate IP pools, so can geolocate to that level. However a small ISP may only have a single POP, with PPPoE/PPPoA sessions backhauled as L2TP over BTW's network.

I assumed that was why on plusnet we appeared to be in Oxford almost every time, and very randomly in Norfolk. Now I'm on Virgin the town name appears in the reverse DNS of my connection, due to the physical wiring.

I find it amusing when I am shown clickbait adverts like "Pensioners in Pinner are snapping up brilliant new hearing aid". I'm nowhere near Pinner - but that's roughly where my ISP (Cerberus) are based.

Yes, I think some of these US based ad platforms assume everyone is on a cable system (like Virgin in the UK) as that is the big percentage in the US.

Maybe you've shared your post code or phone number with a company, website or app recently?

I tend not to, unless absolutely necessary. I even give fake ones for those retail moments when they want to map customer returns/feedback. I tend to give ones that are within 20 miles of my location, so it gives them regional accuracy, perhaps. My privacy is more important to me than a single statistic to them. Websites don't get my real DoB either. My mother's maiden name has changed so often, my grandfather would not approve.

Right now I'm in Margate, but for a while prior to this I was in the Knowsley area, and for a while prior to that I was in the Carlisle area. Back prior to 2015-ish I was located at my ISP's location (Leeds-ish?), with sporadic appearances in London. Presumably, this reflected the last node before exiting into some other network?

So being in Scotland, they only managed to travel as far as Carlisle. No stomach for bad weather, these trackers.

Checked a friends IP location on EE and his location is also spot on.

Maybe EE are on top of the WHOIS or it is indeed the handover exchange they are reporting from.

Their network is completely BTw now, they sold the LLU stuff off I believe.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

Large ISPs have POPs all over the country, with separate IP pools, so can geolocate to that level. However a small ISP may only have a single POP, with PPPoE/PPPoA sessions backhauled as L2TP over BTW's network.

Not many do the former these days. Virgin are probably the biggest that do for standard connections. Their routed business IPs don't follow that rule though.

Sky used to for LLU customers and you were able to see the connected exchange in an outbound traceroute, although I think that was a left-over of the Easynet/UKO days and not sure they use area specific IPs any more at all.

Before that Be/O2 used to do the same thing but they're long gone.

In the past when v4 was in plentiful supply, having loads of spare IPs for blocks assigned to regions/exchanges/towns wasn't an issue but with no more to go around, nearly all provides just work from one massive pool country wide and you just get the next IP that is free.

Matt

In reply to a post by uno:

nearly all provides just work from one massive pool country wide and you just get the next IP that is free

Not sure about other ISPs but Plusnet most definitely assign me addresses from six or seven small pools, all of which geolocate pretty close to me.

For instance I've just changed my IP address and it's identical to the one I had three IP's ago, except the last octet is 74 instead of 78.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

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?

If I connect in France using SFR FTTP the connection is identified as being in Languedoc-Roussillon - which is a fair way off (80-100 miles). With an SFR ADSL connection the information is exact to the small commune near Nice. I think it's a matter of how ISPs partition their IP pools and what information is either shared by the ISP or collated by ip location providers.

It's entirely possible that some websites you register a physical address with (for shopping or other service) will share (i.e. sell) IP addess and general location with one of these ip location providers like Maxmind. Their website states;

In reference to www.maxmind.com/en/privacy-policy:

Usage of IP Addresses

The MaxMind services, including the minFraud service, use IP addresses to help organizations detect and prevent fraudulent activity. Among other things, MaxMind obtains IP addresses and order information (including customer name and billing address) through its minFraud service. MaxMind uses the billing location from this data along with other data to create databases that pair IP addresses with the locations in which they are likely being used, down to a postal code level of resolution.

You might find that interesting

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

You might find that interesting

Thanks! I couldn't remember the name of the Geo-IP company that we used on a client website ~10 years ago. Probably them, but I also know there are others