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user_6c70b2
1st Topic

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6 Messages

Saturday, May 18th, 2024 11:35 AM

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Wrong location for all geo location enabled services - please provide a solution

I live in Vermont, yet when I use various services they all incorrectly detect that I am in Seattle Wa. I can see that many people have complained about this issue, and in all cases they are met with an extremely unhelpful explanation and solution;

“Comcast shuffles blocks of IP addresses around the country all the time. And after doing local plant maintenance / upgrades. ISP's don't correct this. A third party service does. Unfortunately, this is typically a *back-burner* thing to get corrected. The only thing that you can do is to report it.”


Over the last 2 years I have performed the suggested steps with no change, over and over again, many dozens of times. This is an extremely frustrating circumstance, for instance, using a Google assistant and asking “ hey Google, what’s the weather today” and getting results from Seattle WA. Or shopping at Lowe’s and getting pickup in store options in Seattle wa. Again I live in Vermont. Considering I am paying xfinity for internet access, and it is esssentially useless in the context of modern internet geo location services, which everything, everywhere uses and unless you have cell phone service with gps that can correct using precise location, which I do not have cell service, as I am in a rural location, it seems I am paying for an inferior product. What is xfinity going to do about this issue besides passing the buck to a 3rd party who does not respond. Further, if xfinity is aware that they do not respond why are they not proactively trying to resolve this issue?

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23 days ago

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Official Solution

EG

Expert

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107.1K Messages

6 months ago

I authored that and unfortunately, it is what it is. I'll repost it in it's entirety;

You likely recently received a new / different WAN (public) IP address assignment to your connection from their DHCP server / IP address pool, and the rDNS / geolocation data that is associated with it is now incorrect for you as it previously belonged to someone else that lived in that other area. 

Comcast shuffles blocks of IP addresses around the country all the time. And after doing local plant maintenance / upgrades. ISP's don't correct this. A third-party service does. Unfortunately, this is typically a *back-burner* thing to get corrected. The only thing that you can do is to report it. You can try this;


https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-location-correction 


https://support.google.com/websearch/contact/ip/ 


https://whatismyipaddress.com/location-feedback  


http://www.ipligence.com/contact/ 


https://www.ip2location.com/contact/ 


https://www.home.neustar/contact-us 


Wait for the geolocation provider to approve your request. If your request is approved, the amount of time it takes to see the correction varies by provider. The average is two weeks to a month or more.


You can also try this;

If you are using a router that has a MAC address cloning feature, you can clone a different MAC address into it. This will force a change of your Comcast assigned WAN / public IP address. No guarantees that the new address won't also have incorrect geo-data as it may be from the same block of IP's. YMMV.

1

user_6c70b2

Visitor

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6 Messages

You mentioned that the time to see a correction varies by provider, I can’t imagine that 2 years isn’t long enough to wait. This tells me nothing is being done, so what is the point of providing this as a solution?  Might as well say [Edited: Language], and post a shoulder shrug emoji.   Hopefully someone sees this post and has more information someday, a workaround would be great, especially since I know there are many people besides myself with this issue and again as I mentioned, it kind of makes using nearly any website frustrating every single day. It’s ridiculous to not be able to resolve where your location is. 

(edited)

6 months ago

0

EG

Expert

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107.1K Messages

6 months ago

Sorry that this is not what you hear but again, it is what it is. There is no other solution or avenue to take. Comcast can't control the inner workings of other third party companies. You have to lean on them. Good luck ! 

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user_6c70b2

Visitor

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6 Messages

I like to get more than one opinion. I also like to believe that customer opinions still matter, I also hope customer satisfaction impacts relationships between Comcast and 3rd parties they work with, like any large company would.  Nothing new here. Looking forward to fresh ideas from anyone. 

6 months ago

0

Again

Expert

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31K Messages

@user_6c70b2​ 

I like to get more than one opinion. I also like to believe that customer opinions still matter, I also hope customer satisfaction impacts relationships between Comcast and 3rd parties they work with, like any large company would.  Nothing new here. Looking forward to fresh ideas from anyone. 

FWIW, @EG is a customer.  He's been helping here for 20 years now, hence his 103K+ messages.  He does know what he's talking about and is our primary non-employee technical advisor.

I am not a Comcast Employee.
I am a Customer Expert volunteering my time to help other customers here in the Forums.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.

Was your question answered? Please mark an Accepted Answer!tick

6 months ago

EG

Expert

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107.1K Messages

6 months ago

Welcome to corporate America...... 😐

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user_6c70b2

Visitor

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6 Messages

So, if DSL, Cellular Wi-Fi, and Satellite internet providers don’t have this issue, it must be an issue unique to cable Wi-Fi providers. I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on why cable internet providers would tolerate this, or if anyone knows which cable providers have addressed this issue, if any. 

(edited)

6 months ago

0

XfinityMichaelC

Official Employee

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4.1K Messages

Hey, user_6c70b2! Thanks for reaching out to us on the forums! I apologize to hear of the issues you are having with your geolocation, however, what @EG has provided is correct information. The correcting of the geolocation is not something that is handled by ISPs but by third-party vendors like the ones he has mentioned. I certainly understand your frustration with it not being correct and will pass your feedback along to the proper channels. If there is anything else we could assist you with please let us know. You can also see more information about it here.

 

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

6 months ago

0

user_6c70b2

Visitor

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6 Messages

Although the information provided is being called correct, it is fair to say that customers like me remain stuck with an unsolvable and frustrating issue. My hope is that Xfinity recognizes the issue exists and works to remediate the issue. Knowing there is a customer experience issue with your product and saying it’s someone else’s fault, then providing links, some that are in other countries, and that are not responded to, is not helping me at all. I feel like I’m being asked to live with it and to stop asking questions. If you were in my position wouldn’t you want to resolve the issue?

(edited)

6 months ago

0

Lkpolo

Problem Solver

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493 Messages

6 months ago

Several months ago I had an issue with my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook Pro. I contacted Apple for support and had a small amount of help but everything changed back. I live in Western Pennsylvania but my location services said I was in Katy Texas. Find My and my Weather apps all gave me weather for Katy Texas.  It was quite alarming. My solution for my Apple devices was to go to settings, location services and shut location  services off then reboot each device. Go back to settings and location services and turn on location services on each device one at a time then reboot.  My location for Find My and Weather have been fine ever since.  Maybe something in there will help you.  Apple did say it was an Xfinity issue but no help was found there. 

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user_6c70b2

Visitor

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6 Messages

@Lkpolo​  I’m relying on the router and xfinity to provide location as I cannot correct it with cellular location services on my specific devices as I live in a rural area and there is spotty at best service and none near my home. So that solution does not work for me, I just continue to get a location in Seattle WA. Thank you though.

6 months ago

0

user_wa256h

1 Message

23 days ago

Hello, I too live in Vermont and am experiencing the same issue. Thanks for describing the fix. After 5 calls to Xfinity, I have gotten no help. It sounds like switching providers might be the only way to fix this in a timely manner. 

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