All browsers say I’m in Canada on shopping websites

Topic

New Reply

I have tested this on Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. When I go to some shopping websites, I get a popup that says, I notice you are in Canada, would you like to visit the Canadian site? I am not in Canada, I am in Texas. I have searched online for a solution and tried every suggestion without a change. I have checked my location in whatismyip.com, used precise location in Chrome, cleaned my cookies and cache, cleaned and disabled flash cookies, run Ccleaner numerous times, and still get this on Walmart, Newegg, Wayfair and other shopping sites. Other users in the house get the same error, so it is not tied to me. When I visit a site, there is a cookie downloaded that says zip code K2H. I can’t seem to get rid of it. Where is this info coming from and how do I correct it?

Reply | Quote

Replies

It may be your ISP/Internet Service Provider, has one of their servers in Ontario. I’d be checking with them.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

Reply | Quote

IP address resolves to Texas.

Reply | Quote

No, it’s Suddenlink, based in St. Louis, no Canadian service. DNS servers are in Arkansas.

Reply | Quote

No, it’s Suddenlink, based in St. Louis, no Canadian service. DNS servers are in Arkansas.

Interesting, your Location shows as Pittsburg, PA, and you have service through a firm in St. Louis, MO, their DNS Servers are in Arkansas and the IP goes to Texas. What type service do you have with Suddenlink?

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

Reply | Quote

Yes, I live in Pittsburgh, PA, but I am currently at my house in Tyler, TX and have internet service here, at this house, from Suddenlink. Sorry for the confusion. (Reason for having second house in Texas is a long story.)

Reply | Quote

See if AdwCleaner finds anything on your computer. https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/

Reply | Quote

See if AdwCleaner finds anything on your computer. https://toolslib.net/downloads/viewdownload/1-adwcleaner/

Thank you. It did find and delete a few Chrome folders:

AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultExtensionsdmglolhoplikcoamfgjgammjbgchgjdd
AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultWeb data] [Search Provider] Found : aol.com
AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultWeb data] [Search Provider] Found : ask.com
AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefaultSecure Preferences] [Extension] Found : dmglolhoplikcoamfgjgammjbgchgjdd

but Newegg still thinks I’m in Canada:
43603-Capture

I did a Google search and found that the block 47.222.201.0-47.222.201.255 was originally assigned to Nortel Networks in Ottawa. After Nortel went bankrupt in 2009, their IP addresses were purchased by other companies. The website Speedguide.net is resolving the address to Ottawa and the dreaded K2H zipcode, but the WHOIS info lookup on the same site shows Suddenlink in Tyler, TX, last update 2014.
I guess whoever Newegg and the other sites are using for their geolocation haven’t updated their databases since 2014. Sure makes it hard for us to shop online. Also read that prices on some sites are dynamic depending on location.

Reply | Quote

I have service at my home in Pittsburgh from Comcast and have no problems with the geolocation when I am there.

Reply | Quote

You’ll have to contact the sites that have your location wrong and ask them to use an up-to-date AS/IP source, don’t point them at SpeedGuide.net, they have you down wrong as well (http://www.speedguide.net/index.php and use the IP checker near the top).

Reply | Quote

Thank you. Yes, more than one database has it wrong. I tried to get an IP address in a different block but it isn’t happening. As a home user, my ip address will only change when I don’t want it to.

Reply | Quote

What happens when you’re registered and logged into one of these sites, does the ordering/shipping process go as expected?

If not, have you tried contacting their Customer Service dept. to make progress?

Reply | Quote

What happens when you’re registered and logged into one of these sites, does the ordering/shipping process go as expected?
If not, have you tried contacting their Customer Service dept. to make progress?

Can log in, but if I navigate around to shop, I’m not always kept logged in and the location again defaults to K2H, Ottawa, Ontario. Haven’t contacted Customer Service yet. Don’t have a lot of hope for that as they are probably not the people responsible for designing and maintaining their website. It’s probably another company altogether.

I do shop interest rates on savings accounts and I have been told by several banks that they are set by location. For example, if you live in Ohio, you may get a different interest rate than if you live in Florida. You don’t get to tell them where you are when you are not logged in; their cookie system, for lack of a better term, does that. I asked why I was seeing a higher rate on a bank’s rate page than I was offered, and that is what I was told.

I’ve learned a lot about browser geolocation researching this problem. Read a good article here:
https://cms.scs.carleton.ca/sites/default/files/tr/TR-06-05.pdf

Being a retired geek, I am frustrated when I can’t fix it and keep trying to figure out a way to make it work. I will report back after I try a few things; i.e., contacting the companies (Walmart, Newegg, Wayfair, etc.), contacting Suddenlink to see if I can get assigned to a different ip block, and looking into using a proxy server.

This all started a couple months ago when I rearranged the furniture in the living room and the modem was unplugged. As I said, the only time I get a different ip address is when I don’t want one.

Reply | Quote

This all started a couple months ago when I rearranged the furniture in the living room and the modem was unplugged. As I said, the only time I get a different ip address is when I don’t want one.

That’s the trick for a new IP – change your router. Unfortunately, it will probably still come from the same subnet you’ve been getting. Maybe you could swap your router from Pittsburgh and it will move to Belgium or somewhere .

Reply | Quote

That’s the trick for a new IP – change your router. Unfortunately, it will probably still come from the same subnet you’ve been getting. Maybe you could swap your router from Pittsburgh and it will move to Belgium or somewhere .

I will try swapping routers — thank you.

Reply | Quote

Can log in, but if I navigate around to shop, I’m not always kept logged in and the location again defaults to K2H, Ottawa, Ontario. Haven’t contacted Customer Service yet. Don’t have a lot of hope for that as they are probably not the people responsible for designing and maintaining their website. It’s probably another company altogether.

I do shop interest rates on savings accounts and I have been told by several banks that they are set by location. For example, if you live in Ohio, you may get a different interest rate than if you live in Florida. You don’t get to tell them where you are when you are not logged in; their cookie system, for lack of a better term, does that. I asked why I was seeing a higher rate on a bank’s rate page than I was offered, and that is what I was told.

I’ve learned a lot about browser geolocation researching this problem. Read a good article here:
https://cms.scs.carleton.ca/sites/default/files/tr/TR-06-05.pdf

Being a retired geek, I am frustrated when I can’t fix it and keep trying to figure out a way to make it work. I will report back after I try a few things; i.e., contacting the companies (Walmart, Newegg, Wayfair, etc.), contacting Suddenlink to see if I can get assigned to a different ip block, and looking into using a proxy server.

This all started a couple months ago when I rearranged the furniture in the living room and the modem was unplugged. As I said, the only time I get a different ip address is when I don’t want one.

Why don’t you change your DNS server (instead of going through your ISP’s DNS servers) to something like OpenDNS (https://www.opendns.com/)? I’m not expert on this kind of thing, but I think it’s worth a try. You have to change the info in the router, but once that’s done, it seems to me, that you’re now going through a US based system, and of course it will effect the entire household, not just one individual. Let us know what happens.

Reply | Quote

Why don’t you change your DNS server (instead of going through your ISP’s DNS servers) to something like OpenDNS (https://www.opendns.com/)? I’m not expert on this kind of thing, but I think it’s worth a try. You have to change the info in the router, but once that’s done, it seems to me, that you’re now going through a US based system, and of course it will effect the entire household, not just one individual. Let us know what happens.

Changing DNS servers does not fix the problem. It is the block of IP addresses that Suddenlink is now using in East Texas and some midwest markets (Kansas, Chicago) that is the problem. I found another thread on DSLReports regarding Suddenlink subscribers who are unable to access Showtime because its servers place them in Canada; also, gamers in Oklahoma and Texas are experiencing high latency because they are being directed to East Coast servers instead of Midwest, also because of the geolocation problem. That thread had a Suddenlink tech responding that they are aware of the problem but that it isn’t their problem. That is just what I thought would happen. I did send inquiries to ARIN, whatismyipaddress.com, DSLreports.com (who also had me logging in from Canada), speedguide.net and db-ip.com, but I’m just a home user. If Suddenlink would address this, as it is affecting their business, they would get more attention than an email from a little old lady in Texas who doesn’t have any Canadian dollars.

Reply | Quote

Kmatlock – it does sound as if your ISP should deal with this.

If they don’t, or won’t, there is always the option of a VPN such as ZenMate, free, and very effective. It should change your IP address to the USA.

Dell E5570 Latitude, Intel Core i5 6440@2.60 GHz, 8.00 GB - Win 10 Pro

Reply | Quote

Thank you very much. I will contact Suddenlink; their WHOIS information shows the Tyler address. I will also look into using a VPN.

Reply | Quote

Kmatlock – it does sound as if your ISP should deal with this.

If they don’t, or won’t, there is always the option of a VPN such as ZenMate, free, and very effective. It should change your IP address to the USA.

Thank you very much. I will contact Suddenlink and look into using a VPN.

Reply | Quote

Thank you very much. I will contact Suddenlink and look into using a VPN.

I just started using AirVPN and it is trick. Easy to setup and then you can be in any Country you would like. Cheap too….Something like $60 US/year….

Reply | Quote

It was the furniture rearranging, I just know it! :mellow:

I suggest you fry up some Canadian bacon, kick back with a brew and try being a Canuck eh? It will probably only be temporary and your blood pressure will thank you for it. In the mean time tell your ISP to Take Off!

Reply | Quote

Have you considered Verizon 4G home internet? If you don’t stream a lot of movies (i.e. burn through a lot of data each month), then that may be a better option for you than Suddenlink. I would switch to Verizon, except that we do a lot of Netflix and other streaming.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

Reply | Quote

You will have to move to Canada.

It could be worse. You could stay in Texas.

Reply | Quote

VPN is good temporary solution. I travel to Mexico frequently and it always messes me up. I can’t watch NFLV. VPN works great. Paid for a faster service, but nominal cost. Good luck

Reply | Quote

Keeping security in mind, have you tried an external PC like a friend, neighbor, library or college to test Geo-IP?

Reply | Quote

Keeping security in mind, have you tried an external PC like a friend, neighbor, library or college to test Geo-IP?

Yes, using another ip address geolocates correctly. Anyone using my wifi gets geolocated in Canada. It is definitely linked to the block of IP addresses that Suddenlink acquired from Nortel.

Reply | Quote

…and the Modem was unplugged…

Well now,

It’s possible that your modem has some old Nortel firmware that it reset to when you unplugged it.

Something to try is reset your DNS servers. the easiest I can think of is to use Google’s instead of your ISP. Rather than explain it all here, I’ll just link to the relevant Google page. You can either change the DNS server in each computer, or log into your Modem/Router and change them there.

Here’s the link:

https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using#routers

Good luck with it.

Reply | Quote

Rather than trying a different router. You could just change the MAC address of your current router (just change the last number). That should get you a different IP address. If that solves the problem you are good. If it doesn’t, then you could try a different router.

Reply | Quote

It is definitely linked to the block of IP addresses that Suddenlink acquired from Nortel.

Say… does that mean this problem connects to the depleted IPv4 address pool? And in a related question, are companies trading entire Class A/B/C address blocks, or are they selling sub-blocks?

Reply | Quote

I’m not sure how or when Suddenlink acquired the block of IP addresses. I did read that Microsoft bought some of Nortel’s blocks back in 2011. IANA had some information on policies of releasing returned IP blocks. Supposedly, ipv6 made the issue moot, but then why do certain entities continue to hold enormous numbers of blocks?

Reply | Quote

ipv6 made the issue moot, but then why do certain entities continue to hold enormous numbers of blocks?

IPv6 did make the issue moot, but only for IPv6. North America is mostly on IPv4 and for those customers the problem remains.

IPv6 is fully up and running but it’s work to convert over. Some organizations don’t see the merit in converting and so they putter along using the old system. All the while technical debt accumulates. However the IPv6 conversion has been systematically deferred for more than 10 years now and it has gotten to be a bad habit in some quarters.

As for IPv4 block holders, no one can force them to give those addresses up. It’s up to them to decide if they do or not. Some organizations aren’t paying any attention. Some don’t need the money and view their protected address block as insurance for growth in the future.

The problem here is that IPv4 address space has become a scarce resource when it was never meant to be that. The real answer is to convert to IPv6 and stop goofing around with an old technology. IPv4 did yeoman service for us for a long time but it’s time to move on. All answers based upon IPv4 are merely delaying the inevitable and continuing to invest in the old system.

However to answer your specific question: Why does your internet say you are based in Canada? The answer is that someone messed up the ARIN registration for that address block.

Maybe it was up to Nortel to change the registration. Maybe it was up to Suddenlink to do so. Maybe ARIN itself has been notified and there’s some hold-up there. You can take it to the bank though, that the ARIN process has been borked by somebody.

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

Reply | Quote

However to answer your specific question: Why does your internet say you are based in Canada? The answer is that someone messed up the ARIN registration for that address block.

Maybe it was up to Nortel to change the registration. Maybe it was up to Suddenlink to do so. Maybe ARIN itself has been notified and there’s some hold-up there. You can take it to the bank though, that the ARIN process has been borked by somebody.

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

I did check the ARIN registration and it has been properly registered to Suddenlink, as far as I can tell. It is the geolocation database providers that have not updated their databases. Some of them are more accurate than others.

Reply | Quote

In fact let’s go one step further from my above comments.

Why did Suddenlink obtain an IPv4 address block from Nortel? Why bother? They can get IPv6 address blocks, it’s as easy as falling out of bed.

See what I mean about inertia and laziness? Suddenlink contributes to this situation by perpetuating this old technology. No one wants to admit this and yes, conversions take time and effort. However the longer we continue using the old technology, the more we feed into the problems we’ve all known about for far longer than a decade.

Reply | Quote

In fact let’s go one step further from my above comments.

Why did Suddenlink obtain an IPv4 address block from Nortel? Why bother? They can get IPv6 address blocks, it’s as easy as falling out of bed.

See what I mean about inertia and laziness? Suddenlink contributes to this situation by perpetuating this old technology. No one wants to admit this and yes, conversions take time and effort. However the longer we continue using the old technology, the more we feed into the problems we’ve all known about for far longer than a decade.

You hit the nail on the head here. I was surprised that Suddenlink did not have IPv6 when I configured my modem & router for their service. I bought the same equipment that I use at home in Pittsburgh with Comcast, which is using IPv6 there.

But back to my original problem. Is geolocation with IPv6 an even bigger problem? I wonder how accurate the geolocation database providers are on those addresses. I didn’t see any way to compare accuracy for IPv6, or even check it.

Reply | Quote

Some background info here…

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/what-are-the-consequences-of-the-great-ip-address-sell-off–1302272

Reply | Quote

Is geolocation with IPv6 an even bigger problem? I wonder how accurate the geolocation database providers are…

Well this is certainly an excellent question! As I was writing my rant above, a thought occurred to me: Is IPv6 even really the solution here? IPv4 may not be the heart of the problem and IPv6 may not be a comprehensive fix.

However I do think there is some connection. My concern relates to the issue of old systems, old technology. One thing that can happen with old tech is that people, all of us, can start to focus on the new stuff. In doing that we can neglect the old tech and it starts to bit-rot. I’m not sure this is a problem yet with IPv4 but it’s probably coming.

Another concern is the manner of geolocation detection. I’m not persuaded that geolocation is a bad thing, as such. The internet “doesn’t like” location dependencies and has done a lot to break down boundaries, especially artificial boundaries. However I think that some geolocation services will always be needed and useful. For instance when Windows 10 tells you the weather forecast where you are, that’s actually helpful.

However the database thing, that concerns me. Is that really the best way to resolve this issue? Imagine a laptop on a plane. The laptop maintains a continuous connection as the plane flies around the globe. Is a database going to be a good solution for geolocation in this instance? No, and systems that increase the rate of database updates to reflect actual location, simply mask the problem or fail to address it at all.

My best guess is that geolocation services should query the client. And the client should provide location services based upon any of a variety of mechanisms, at the client’s discretion. This could be an OS level location setting. It could be a GPS reading. It could be a Wi-Fi or cellular location.

The system should be like a device driver for location. Make it device and technology independent.

The likely holdups? Some services (Netflix, I’m looking at you) don’t trust their users and worry about user spoofing of locations. Also there are multiple computing ecosystems out there and my idealized solution requires broad agreement between all of them. Agreement on what the problem is, what the solution should be, and whose problems are business problems that don’t deserve ecosystem level attention.

Reply | Quote

UPDATE 4/3/16:
The problem has been resolved! Apparently, the geolocation providers have updated their databases to reflect the correct ARIN registration for the IPv4 block acquired by Suddenlink and recently assigned to its users in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and possibly other states. Thank you, everyone who responded to my thread, for helping me understand how it all works.

Reply | Quote

UPDATE 4/3/16:
The problem has been resolved! Apparently, the geolocation providers have updated their databases to reflect the correct ARIN registration for the IPv4 block acquired by Suddenlink and recently assigned to its users in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and possibly other states. Thank you, everyone who responded to my thread, for helping me understand how it all works.

Maybe the geolocation providers have been following this thread and so they realized they needed to update their information!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

Reply | Quote

UPDATE – Newegg’s database is still showing the IP block 47.222.201.xx as being in Canada. I sent email to them explaining the issue and got a (non)response suggesting that I click on the American flag next time to shop on the US site. Yes, that is what I have to do every time, after I close the big popup box that covers my screen asking if I want to shop on the Canadian site, which was the reason for my email to them in the first place. Disappointed with Newegg.

Reply | Quote

That’s excellent news, thanks for following up with the result

Reply | Quote

Thanks from me too. As a result of this thread I learned that ARIN is not the final word in geolocation services!

Reply | Quote