My Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway thinks it lives in New Orleans

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I have a Verizon 5G Home internet Gateway.  It works fine, but every time I go shopping on line, I get New Orleans stores and info.  I live on the coast of Alabama. So, I am constantly having to put in my zip code to get local stores and info. I browse with Chrome.

Is there some setting somewhere on the Chrome Browser or Verizon Gateway where I can enter my actual location once and for all?

Thanks for your help.

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I did some research on your issue with Verizon 5G Gateway, but didn’t find a decent answer for a fix. Seems Verizon has been getting hit hard by its customers concerning this problem on location. Verizon uses “dynamic IP” addresses as opposed to “static IP”, for more info on this go to the link HERE. Good luck.

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SueW

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Myst,

Thank you.  I think you nailed it and probably nothing can be done.  I knew the IP was Verizon business in New Orleans.  It’s a shame as the service is very good but the dynamic IP is terrible and I am stuck with the situation.

Thank you for your trouble.

MPW

HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0050 – 64 bit
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Myst

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Have you set your location in Windows and allowed apps (browser) access?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-location-service-and-privacy-3a8eee0a-5b0b-dc07-eede-2a5ca1c49088

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mpw

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It is not the router that is the problem.

Google / everyone uses your Internet facing IP as your geographical identifier and the one you used to post here shows as New Orleans. That may have something to do with where your ISP is located (wireless?).

To find your Internet facing IP, search for “my ip”.

cheers, Paul

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mpw

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I would consider this to be a feature, not a bug. My dynamically-assigned IP address is regularly that of a large city 50 miles from where I actually live, and that is a good thing. That puts a large population within my IP’s coverage area. My IP could be anyone within that area. If merchants ever had my actual location, I’d consider that a data leak!

That’s just my take on it, though.

Every time I visit a merchant site, Waterfox asks if I want to allow or block the location, and I always hit ‘block.’ It falls back to the IP location, which cannot be blocked, but is also limited to the ISP’s point of presence, which may not be all that close to the actual physical location.

I am unaware of what location services provide in Windows (or Kubuntu, for that matter), but on a mobile OS like Android, it uses the GPS and the array of SSIDs for wifi networks in that location to obtain a location fix. Most PCs don’t have GPS sensors, but they do usually have wifi cards.

I wonder if there is a place where one could specify a location and have the location services report that to the browser.

FWIW, every ISP I have used from my current location has had my location wrong. The current one that puts it ~50 miles away is the closest. When I use my cell phone’s wifi hotspot, it puts my location 400 miles away from my actual location, in a very big city. That pales by comparison to my previous ISP, which had my location in a small city 700 miles away, several states over!

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Steve, WSbobby-p, wavy, Myst

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Ascaris wrote:

I wonder if there is a place where one could specify a location and have the location services report that to the browser.

For Windows 10, Settings > Privacy > Location > Default location and click the Set default button.

For Windows 11, Settings > Privacy & security > Location > Default location and click the Set default button.

When the Maps app opens, click on the Set default location button and set the specific location you want to use as the default.

Note: “Allow apps to access your location” must be on and your browser must be one of the apps allowed access to it.

I have no idea how, or even if, it’s possible to do this with linux??

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mpw

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Searches still go to location of Verizon router IP, which in my case is Verizon business in New Orleans.

HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0050 – 64 bit
Windows 10 Home Version 22H2
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Windows Defender and Windows Firewall
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2019
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You probably need to allow Google to access your computer’s location:

Manage location permissions for google.com

1. On your computer, open your browser and go to google.com.
2. At the top left, in the address bar, click Lock> Site settings > Location. …
3. Select Allow or Block for google.com.

Understand & manage your location when you search on Google

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Just FYI, Goggle replaced the icon with a new icon back on version 117.

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b

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Follow up to @b’s reply on how to enable Geolocation in Google.

It turns out it’s not as simple as selecting “Allow location” access for a website in Chrome to get it to use your default location.

There’s a feature called WinRT Geolocation Implementation that allows browsers to access Windows “default location” and, unlike Edge (where MS enabled it by default) it’s disabled by default in other “Chromium based” browsers.

In order for Allow location access to work in Chrome, that feature must be enabled as follows:

Open Chrome and enter chrome://flags/#enable-winrt-geolocation-implementation in the address bar and change the setting from Default to Enabled.

BTW, the Allow location access setting can be enabled for other Chromium based browsers by following the above instructions and replacing chrome with the Specific Browser Name.

I was able to activate it for Opera using opera://flags/#enable-winrt-geolocation-implementation and my searches now use the default location I set in Windows using my local zip code instead of the old “IP derived” one that was ~40mi SE of me.

Note: even with Allow location & winRT Geolocation Implementation both enabled, some websites will still use your IP derived address instead (i.e. homedepot.com used my default location, lowes.com used my IP location.)

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The geolocation record (there are multiple databases) for that public IP address very likely needs to be updated…

https://whatismyipaddress.com/geolocation-providers

Accuracy is an issue.

Going through the providers and doing lookups, I got 3 different locations for mine.

One was correct.

Contact Verizon…it’s their IP.

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I have a Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway ARC-XCI55AX which Verizon refers to as a “receiver”.  They come from the factory set to give “dynamic ip addresses” by default.  Sometime in the future the default may change to giving static ip’s. But for the forseeable future when ever I go on line I will be located where my current IP address is located.

BTW my device now thinks it is in Ashburn, VA.  Technician I chatted with also suggested dynamic IP may be a feature rather than a bug as did Ascaris here.

There is nothing I can do at my end.  If someone here has a Verizon 5G Home Internet Gateway ARC-XCI55AX and they were able to overcome the location assigned by the dynamic ip assignment please post what you did.  The tech at Verizon could not do anything other than create a record of my contact with them.

 

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Used the link OldNavyGuy provided, https://whatismyipaddress.com/geolocation-providers . My IP4 location has now changed to Dallas, TX.  My IP6 location is Crestview, Florida.

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mpw wrote:

My IP4 location has now changed to Dallas, TX.

Your IP as seen here hasn’t changed since you started this Topic.

Dynamic IPs usually change per connection to your ISP line. Turn off your router and leave it for ~15 minutes (this is variable, presumably due to their ping check timing settings) then turn it back on, check your hopefully new IP when you’re reconnected.

My experience suggests that this isn’t guaranteed to switch the IP every time, so longer offline periods might be required.

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Just commenting here to follow up the thread.

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My comments are not being posted

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I did a Google search for virtually the same issue. I am in Perdido Key, Florida down the road from you, and am showing as being in Louisiana most often New Orleans but that varies. Were you able to get a solution? It is not a problem but a bit annoying.

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My problem is my TV. I have a ROKU and will be watching a show on youtube tv and it starts demanding my location to be updated. I am sitting at home and the “new ” location is Tulsa or OKC. Which is not close to my house. Then it switches me to that location and several times I have lost my show. Any suggestions on this problem. Really sorry I switched now.

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Can’t you just tell YT where you are?

What did you switch and when?

cheers, Paul

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Some of the services have the capability to remember your location. If they all did, that would be good.

The solution to this problem is for Verizon to give us external IPs that are reasonably close to our location. Right now, I cannot use some of my apps on my TV because they think I live in a different city. PBS is one. It thinks I live in Cleveland and says I do not belong to their station. The station I belong to in Columbus, I cannot get access too.

And there are other situations too. Most of it seems to revolve around my TV in my case. But, it’s frustration that Verizon is not dealing with this problem. I spent 3 hours with tech support via their chat and looking at my gateway configurations and it went nowhere. They said they needed to send a tech to my house. Which they did: Young man walks in, wraps his head around the problem and says ‘ I can’t fix that’.

Verizon needs to do better.

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