A rather disturbing website...

[The Natural Philosopher]

came to my attention, since web security is a bit of an issue I have to deal with.

This site wont hurt, but it will tell you, possibly rather too exactly (it certainly knew which exchange I was on ADSL wise, and I'd still like to know how) where you are located.

I would be very interested to know how many people here find the same - that it is more accurate than it has any right to be.

It certainly suggests thatif you are on a fixed IP your town at least is known. I'd be interested to hear also from those on a dynamically allocated IP address how accurate it is.

I did look up one 3 year old dynamically allocated IP address in an email from someone local, and it reckoned they were in Dorset, which is a long way away, but the mail was several years old.

So I'd like to know if it 'knows' where you are right now.

The implications are not pleasant. Especially in the context where I discovered it being used. In essence any website that wants to know where the person that said XYZ on their blog is located, to possibly withina few miles, can do so.

And the site I chanced upon is one where the sort of people who run it, would be quite capable of slinging a brick through your windows slashing your tyres or worse.

Needless to say I got out very fast indeed.

Looks like a proxy server in a datacenter is the only way to go if you want anonymity these days...

[Bob Eager]

Surely this information has been available for years? I get students to find out this stuff routinely, just to see if they can.

[Bert Coules]

I didn't get a pinpointed location: the map displayed a circle some thirty miles in diameter. Even taking the nearest point on the rim of the circle to me, the site was over sixty miles out.

[Jb]

Puts me 120 miles away...

Jb

>

[John Rumm]

Nowhere near with my ISPs... big circle round london but the edge still well away.

[Andy Cap]

I suspect it might be a coincidence. I'm on a fixed IP address and it's a tad under 100 miles out.

Andy C

[Andy Burns]

I have a /29 subnet at home, the checker thinks I'm in Kettering which it thinks is in Nottinghamshire, map shows Corby. In reality I'm a few miles south of Leicester.

[Peter Crosland]

More paranoia from NP! I am in Somerset and it shows me as being in Central London. Completely useless as a means of locating me.

[The Natural Philosopher]

well the paranoia is justified as it got to within 2 miles of me.

[Charles F]

I'm on a fixed IP, and the website gives an almost central London location, whereas I'm actually in SW Surrey some 40 miles away. It did get my ISP (Zen) right. Looks as though it can give you the country OK, but not much more.

Charles F

[Dennis Davis]

Probably not the right Newsgroup in which to ask the "how" question. You may be better off in something like uk.telecom.broadband.

However it'll at least be looking up records in the databases maintained by several Network Information Centres (NICs). This information is publically available.

For example, see the description of the Unix "whois" command:

...

Dynamic IP address here. With a provider that's based in Sheffield. Tells me I'm in the London area. Which is about 100 miles away. And I'm also nowhere near Sheffield.

Alternatively you could use the Tor network:

I believe I could set up the packet filter on my Unix boxes to use this for *everything* if I so choosed. Haven't tried this.

But see:

for a list of open proxies.

[Bob Eager]

Plugging an IP address into

will often get it close. I suspect that's what it is using.

Amusingly, one of these sites gets it quite wrong. I'm in East Kent, but it gives me as in Arnold, Notts. I think they'e parsing the wrong field in the RIPE data - that's part of my ISP's name...!

[John Williamson]

It places the centre of the 20 mile radius that it thinks I'm in about 4 miles from my actual location. It might get a bit closer in London, but only because tha area covered by each block in the IP range for a particular ISP is smaller due to the greater population density.

If I log on via 3G, it thnks I'm in the docklands, which are about 200 miles away.

A fixed IP address may well have the street address associated with it, depending on how particular the ISP is about registering such things.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 07:24:31 on Mon, 26 Aug 2013, Bob Eager remarked:

Seems unlikely in my case, because that would put me in Slough (not Salisbury). Let alone where I really am!

That particular ISP has some 'interesting' entries in the RIPE Database. Several of the entries have a "missing" or "unspecified" address, so I think we can understand why they have latched onto a town appearing in the person-name field instead.

[Terry Fields]

It shows I'm in Rugby, about 250 miles out.

[polygonum]

Around 20 or so miles out.

And exactly the same location that other services (such as Google's) assume for me.

Being on an arm of Virgin's cable, they all seem to base location on the start point of this area.

Our ip is dynamic but it very, very rarely changes (don't actually bother checking but it certainly has remained the same for several years).

[RJH]

About 1/2 mile out.

[Brian Gaff]

I don't see anything there I've not found via other look up systems. T the coding seems to have a list of which IPs on a given machine go to which general areas of the area in which it is situated which one would expect surely, as this is hardly secret.

Kingston upon Thames is as accurate as they can get here, due I'd imagine to the dynamic IP. Brian

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 01:01:29 on Mon, 26 Aug

2013, The Natural Philosopher remarked:

I'm on static IP (which is one stage less variable than 'fixed' IP). And it claims I'm in Salisbury; a town 200 miles away that I have no known connection with.

[Peter Parry]

I've used the same fixed IP for a decade or two but it thinks I'm in the middle of London :-).