wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Last week I got a replacement router, super hub 2, to replace old router which never worked properly. The new router was needed to get the free speed increase to 150mb. One router was delivered by engineer last Thurs. Another was delivered on Monday.

Although android phone location services have worked fine using wifi for years, showing me at my home address and giving local weather, that is not the case with these two routers.

The first reports my location in Woking. The second shows me located in Leicester, even giving me an exact street address and house number ! I attempted to discuss this with virgin tech support, about a widely reported issue in forums. The person (tony or tom I think) denied any knowledge of the problem, claiming he'd never heard of it in '00s of calls, and trying to blame me. When I objected to this he quickly hung up the phone.

I assume Virgin are recycling second-hand routers and calling them new. Do you think the previous owner in Leicester is happy their home address is showing ? This location issue was never a problem before.

But does anyone know how to fix the location problem ? My android phone should give local weather, google maps showing where I live etc.. Oh, it does all work fine when not connected to the superhub wifi e.g. on 3G network at home, or when I go out to any other wifi location. Just the replacement superhub in my own house

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Virgin are not responsible and do not have control of where various web sites or apps (in the case of your Android phone) think you're located.

If it was a new router or not it wouldn't make any difference.

Your understanding of how location works is incorrect.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5...s/td-p/3039178

Read and follow the instructions in all the posts by Ravenstar in this thread to fix your location: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5...e/td-p/3048343

.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Sounds like you've got a new IP with the new hub, and that IP's geolocation info is incorrect.

My IP points to somewhere in Cardiff, I'm in Newcastle.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Further research tells me Google geolocation database logs mac addresses, and assigns them a location. So both my virgin superhubs were previously at addresses in Woking and Leicester. Simplest solution to demand a brand new router from virgin, so it can register at my home address.

The fact none of their tech support know this, and choose to blame the customer is disgusting. If anyone else offered 150mb broadband I'd switch to them tomorrow. Maybe they do know this.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Incorrect.

Although Macs are logged it's in relation to known IPs and connected locations of attached devices, doubtful if the hub's were elsewhere also doubtful if you could register a new MAC.

Just give it a bit of time and the Googlelocation (especially if you use a device with a GPS on Google maps whilst connected to the router) will automatically sync into the location.

VM won't and can't help you as already stated in the other posts

My new SH3 took 48 hours to sync where as my sh2ac took 3 months

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

"Demand"....

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Some virgin apologists in here. I did demand a new router that has not been at someone else's address, and one is on its way. The mac address is logged by Google, and if the router moves the location doesn't... maybe for a long time. That's the problem. So stop the false info and time wasting advice such as raven in the virgin forum...

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Ok demand away then

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

You asked a question and everybody gave you the correct answer. The fact you don't like it and believe something that is patently wrong is not our problem. You're the only time-waster here giving false info based on bad research.

MAC addresses are not sent over the internet, so cannot be used for location purposes. On cable IP addresses are assigned dynamically from a pool. When you plug in a new Superhub (refurbed or brand new) it's allocated a random IP address from that pool. So naturally the location given by geo location databases will be tied to that IP address.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Not false at all...

It's very technical, as it's intended to enable developers to use Google's geolocation API (which is what many apps use to find your location, on Android, on iOS and on the web), but Google's own documentation says it uses a list of local Cell towers and a list of local WiFi MAC addresses. https://developers.google.com/maps/d...location/intro. If enough users pass a certain MAC address in a different location to that Google have registered for it, Google update their registered location.

Also, Virgin don't necessarily guarantee you new equipment. They DO refurbish and re-use customer equipment. I've been told by many engineers that regardless of what the customer service rep says, if you have an engineer visit, you can only get what they have in the van, which may be all refurb units.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Hence another classic user example of "Damnant quod non intelligunt" ! :rolleyes:

One has to give some credit to VM CS for shutting the user :dunce: up by dispatching a replacement Shub though?

EDIT: ..yet had his reverse DNS host name mapped to another town more than say 40km away then he might have had some justifiable cause for complaint?

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Like I said, both routers are giving someone else's address, one router in Woking and the other in Leicester. That's where they were before, not random.

This thread discusses the problem in detail... https://productforums.google.com/for...ps/NfH94fJ6KUU

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

My opinion is that this is down to Google? They are the ones using the MAC address to link to a location, so it would need to be updated on their database?

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Yes, that is probably why virgin disclaim any responsibility (though they told me they'd never heard of this problem before). It would seem the Google database may update, using one of the techniques mentioned earlier in this thread, in a period of 48 hours to 3 months. But a brand new router, not previously registered elsewhere would appear to be the best solution, and yesterday eve I received an email from virgin saying they are sending me one... believe it when I see it. Then I'll have three routers, and work out how to return them. If the new router does immediately since the problem, I'll be sure to update this thread.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

You're too nice. I give them zero points for dispatching 2 replacements and an appropriate amount of disdain for twice over pandering to an unreasonable request; something that will almost inevitably lead to further unreasonable requests.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

As the kit provided isn't yours but belongs to VM, and isn't actually faulty it doesn't matter if it's refurbed or new, I can't see how it's their problem. Just my opinion though.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

You're wrong about this. The routers aren't "giving" anything, it's 100% Google that's in the wrong here and it has nothing to do with Virgin at all.

Imagine it like this. You walk down a street (call it main street) and see that house 123 has a red door with a brass door knocker. You remember that's house 123. Later on, the number falls off the door but you remember the red door with the brass knocker is 123, so you get that nugget in your head.
Later on you're walking down a street, it's dark and you weren't paying attention so you don't know which street it is. You see the red door with the brass knocker and no number - aha, this must be 123 Main street. Except it's not, it's a different street entirely, someone just happens to have the same door. The door is not what's at fault, it's the person making the incorrect association that 123 main street == red door with brass knocker == 123 Main street.

That's what's happening here. Google has seen that Mac address in one part of the country and associated it with a location. That's how their location services work. Your phone (and everyone else's) constantly transmits its location back to google, along with some other data it can "see" - other wireless access points, cell towers, all that. From that information, it builds up a database that means it can get a rough location from just that information, instead of having to use GPS - which saves battery. This is also how their realtime traffic information works, any cars with an android phone will transmit their location back to Google, Google can then see that a lot of cars on a specific road are moving slowly and thus they know there's congestion there.

Anyway, as others have said: This has nothing to do with Virgin, at all. There's absolutely nothing they can do about it. They say they're sending you a replacement hub? Good, but they cannot guarantee it's a "new" hub and it's almost certain it will also be a refurb, as I don't think they even make the SHUB 1, 2 or ac any more. Google will eventually update its database, it just takes time. If you set your location settings to high precision, it will help as that also sends GPS coordinates to Google as well, which will help immensely.

Now remember, you didn't know this before you phoned up Virgin. Why would you expect Virgin to know this? It's not their own equipment, it's not their service, it's not their responsibility. Just like it's not the responsibility of the owner of 123 Main Street to ensure other people don't have a similar door to them.

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

Final update on this. I followed advice from some early posts in this thread. In particular, I went daily to whatismyipaddress.com and repeatedly corrected the incorrect location information. After about 3 weeks, it started to give the correct location... so that's the solution.

p.s. a new router never arrived from Virgin, and they ignored my complaint. A truly awful company, but without Any competition in this market (want a bt line anyone ? happy with 18mb speed and 3gb per month download limit ?)

Re: wrong location on superhub 2 wifi
 

VM ignored your complaint of a problem with googles services?