Non GPS Location service - how does it work (or not)

[Guest Rocky7]

Is there any way of debugging where the N1 gets it's coarse location from?

Everywhere I have been it is fairly accurate but when I am at home in West London it thinks I am 6 miles away in Paddington !

If I knew what it was using to ascertain this I could start to troubleshoot it.

Is it using WiFi mac addresses ? Is it using cell tower triangulation?

I am using a Vodafone Sure Signal at home and I was wondering if this was throwing it off somehow.

Any thoughts / direction would be appreciated as it's just annoying to have "PADDINGTON" as my weather and location.

Thanks.

[Guest daisun]

Well without the gps turned on the phone will try and use nearby cell tower and nearby wifi points to guess where you are. I find that when I get home the weather still hasn't updated itself to reflect my location. A simple manual refresh will fix it or it'll refresh itself after an hr or so.

Edited May 20, 2010 by daisun

[Guest Rocky7]

Thx for reply. This one isn't refresh though. You can manually refresh and it gets paddington, use google maps (without GPS) and it is Paddington

It's a right PITA ! :rolleyes:

[Guest Pinko_Commie]

Thx for reply. This one isn't refresh though. You can manually refresh and it gets paddington, use google maps (without GPS) and it is Paddington

It's a right PITA ! :rolleyes:

It's probably using a geo-ip database.

I hqave noticed that it appears to choose locations in the order GPS > WiFi Geo IP > Cell location

Try sticking your IP address into this site: http://www.geoio.com/ and see if it is givinig you the same area.

Unfortunatly you are reliant on whatever the provider has put into the database about locations.

[Guest Victor Bello]

The exact same thing happens to me, I leave in Henderson, NV but at home it tells me I'm in Enterprise, which is about the same 6 miles away. What gives?

Take a look at the picture from Latitude History. My home is the right one and the other weird one (which I've never been to) is on the left.

Is there any way of debugging where the N1 gets it's coarse location from?

Everywhere I have been it is fairly accurate but when I am at home in West London it thinks I am 6 miles away in Paddington !

If I knew what it was using to ascertain this I could start to troubleshoot it.

Is it using WiFi mac addresses ? Is it using cell tower triangulation?

I am using a Vodafone Sure Signal at home and I was wondering if this was throwing it off somehow.

Any thoughts / direction would be appreciated as it's just annoying to have "PADDINGTON" as my weather and location.

Thanks.

[Guest AndiTails]

Since you use Vodafone Sure Signal, your 'mobile' signal is actually being provided by your broadband - so its more likely reflecting the location of your IP of your router from your ISP.

Your phone doesn't know its mobile signal is actually a 'fake' cell tower running in your home of your internet.

Normally,

cell locate = cell tower triangulation

WiFi locate = WiFi SSID database lookup triangulation

Your cell tower is on the Internet - so it can't use either (as it's not WiFi, and not a real cell tower).

Be interested to hear if using your broadband, what this site reckons your location is: http://www.geoiptool.com/

I get a town, funnily enough, about 6/7 miles south of me...

Edited May 21, 2010 by AndiTails