Why does the location from my IP address not match my actual location?

[maximum_ian]

I am in Cape Town, but when i use my Cell c stick and test my speed, why is it saying i am in JHB on speedtest.net when i am in Cape Town?

I gather it has to do with the dynamic IP address it chooses every time. I have tried changing the IP to static under Profile management, but i don't have a Cape Town Ip address for Cell C network only PE, JHB surrounds....

Anyone know of a solution?

 

[ronbo4GS]

Hi Maximum_ian

The reason it shows location as Joburg is that currently our 2 major Packet Core's (all of the Cell Sites data connections go first to the Base Station Controller RNC, and then onto our National Fiber to the Packet Core) The Packet Core handles the accounting of your usage, along with connection management. At that point it drops onto the Internet in Joburg, thus the location data. We are in the process of adding a new Packet Core in Cape Town which should add a bit of performance on DL speeds and also decrease Ping times which bottom line will result in faster access and a better user experience.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

 

[maximum_ian]

Awesome, really looking forward to this, will be able to have better pings when gaming with my mates in Cape Town. So far i have been only able to play in JHB ping 90-110 and in CT its 280 - 320...

Please keep us updated as to when this will happen.

It is really great to hear form Cell C, because all the calls, and email made to the 140 number and tell trevor have gone unanswered.

Keep up the communication and good work.

 

[maximum_ian]

Hi Maximum_ian

The reason it shows location as Joburg is that currently our 2 major Packet Core's (all of the Cell Sites data connections go first to the Base Station Controller RNC, and then onto our National Fiber to the Packet Core) The Packet Core handles the accounting of your usage, along with connection management. At that point it drops onto the Internet in Joburg, thus the location data. We are in the process of adding a new Packet Core in Cape Town which should add a bit of performance on DL speeds and also decrease Ping times which bottom line will result in faster access and a better user experience.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

Hi Ron,

Any news on the rollout of the new Packet Core in Cape Town?

Really excited about the future of Cell C.... please keep me updated.

thanks.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

I am in Cape Town, but when i use my Cell c stick and test my speed, why is it saying i am in JHB on speedtest.net when i am in Cape Town?

I gather it has to do with the dynamic IP address it chooses every time. I have tried changing the IP to static under Profile management, but i don't have a Cape Town Ip address for Cell C network only PE, JHB surrounds....

Anyone know of a solution?

Here it is reversed. When I do a speedtest, I usually get Cape Town - but I live in Gauteng

I can't complain though.

 

[wndrbees]

please keep me updated.

+1
Any updates on this forum will be appreciated, perhaps a monthly "state of the network" address

 

[maximum_ian]

+1
Any updates on this forum will be appreciated, perhaps a monthly "state of the network" address

wow, whats happening tonight in Cape Town... super high pings and Slow speeds both up an down??? upgrades perhaps???

 

[def]

Visit Gumtree from CellC speedstick - what city does it detect you as?

I live in Cape Town and when I visit gumtree.co.za with my CellC dongle, it detects me as being from Cape Town. Yet doing a geoip lookup on maxmind.com with the IP that CellC hits the website from, it's a JHB registered address.

Question:
* If you live in JHB and visit gumtree.co.za does it give you the JHB gumtree site?

If it does give you JHB when you are in Gauteng, my question is, how the hell do GumTree.co.za know the difference?
(I have tried it without any cookies or history too so a manual selection of city isn't stored)

 

[SUPERMAN89]

Funny thing I found about about modems and speedtest

Well Speeds are slow as ever my side, so I popped in the CellC sim onto my Vodafone modem and did a speed-test

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1325449226.png

than on my CellC modem

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1325453417.png

Apart from speeds being slow, its funny to find that testing on the Vodacom modem picked up the server as a Durban one (My location), but when using the CellC modem picked me up as being in Joburg

 

[ginggs]

Different hardware so most likely ends up picking up a different tower with a different IP

I seriously doubt that.

Geolocation by IP address is not an exact science. Please see note in first post in Speed Test Results thread.

 

[SUPERMAN89]

The thing is that how come the vodafone modem picked my location but the cellc one didn't? With the same simcard. Understand the whole exchange thing, but the modem???

 

[ginggs]

The thing is that how come the vodafone modem picked my location but the cellc one didn't? With the same simcard. Understand the whole exchange thing, but the modem???

Are you able to repeat those results?

Sometimes I get an IP address in the 41.51.0.0-41.51.255.255 range, sometimes I get one in the 197.168.0.0-197.175.255.255 range. Sometimes I'm behind a transparent proxy, and sometimes not. I can disconnect and reconnect (with the same modem, SIM card and Cell ID) straight away and end up on the other address range. Whether speedtest.net gest your location correct or not all depends on how recent and accurate their geolocation data is.

 

[SUPERMAN89]

Are you able to repeat those results?

My Vodafone modem with the CellC simcard picked up in joberg, just did a speedtest not so long ago.

Oh well, it was interesting to know that for that particular day, and hour my Vodafone modem with the same Cell C simcard picked up my exact location

 

[zaozzie]

Using CellC I sometimes get sites think I am from a French speaking country. Mozilla comes to mind when I wanted to download Firefox it pointed me to the French version.
Not sure if it still does.
:wtf:

 

[def]

* If you live in JHB and visit gumtree.co.za on CellC does it give you the JHB gumtree site?

 

[ginggs]

I live in Cape Town and when I visit gumtree.co.za with my CellC dongle, it detects me as being from Cape Town. Yet doing a geoip lookup on maxmind.com with the IP that CellC hits the website from, it's a JHB registered address.

Have you ever seen the IP address that hits the website being different to your own?

If it does give you JHB when you are in Gauteng, my question is, how the hell do CellC know the difference?
(I have tried it without any cookies or history too so a manual selection of city isn't stored)

How does gumtree.co.za know the difference, you mean?

 

[def]

Have you ever seen the IP address that hits the website being different to your own?

I hit another website that echo's back all my headers so that I can see what IP and X-Forwarded-For headers are sent to website. It maps to JHB according to maxmind.com and other sites.

How does gumtree.co.za know the difference, you mean?

Correct I have edited the original question.
How hard do you think it is to find someone in JHB on CellC to hit gumtree.co.za? I'm gonna try finding someone for this on vark.com, thought I would try here first.

 

[def]

Ok, Vark worked! http://vark.com/t/u4gGRY

A user said:

I tried using MTN and Virgin internet, and they both go to CPT gumtree.
- Raw R. M / Johannesburg, ZA

So that means that gumtree probably defaults to Cape Town if you come from mobile, obviously on the assumption that more users are in Cape Town and it's better to be CPT than to be wrong.

 

[NSB]

Hi Maximum_ian

The reason it shows location as Joburg is that currently our 2 major Packet Core's (all of the Cell Sites data connections go first to the Base Station Controller RNC, and then onto our National Fiber to the Packet Core) The Packet Core handles the accounting of your usage, along with connection management. At that point it drops onto the Internet in Joburg, thus the location data. We are in the process of adding a new Packet Core in Cape Town which should add a bit of performance on DL speeds and also decrease Ping times which bottom line will result in faster access and a better user experience.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

Is there any one from Cell C who would like to give a update about when the new Cape Town Packet Core will be complete ?

There is some thing which I was wondering about regarding the new Packet Core, maybe some one on the forum will know more about it. If your in CPT you probably would make use of the CPT Packet Core hence you would get a better ping time to CPT than what we are currently getting now. Now speaking from a gaming perspective I ping JHB with a rough 100 ping and to CPT 120/130, I'm from Port Elizabeth so I fall under the CPT guys ping times. Now when the CPT Packet Core is complete, will my JHB ping remain the same or will it increase since the CPT Core will be active then

 

[ginggs]

My Vodafone modem with the CellC simcard picked up in joberg, just did a speedtest not so long ago.

Oh well, it was interesting to know that for that particular day, and hour my Vodafone modem with the same Cell C simcard picked up my exact location

I think speedtest.net's geolocation is just dodgy at the moment, got this result on Vodacom last night:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/60978?p=6285971#post6285971
I'm in Cape Town, but speedtest.net thinks the Cape Town server is approximately 400 miles away!