How to fix conflicting country code?

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24 points

How to fix conflicting country code?

Network performance is quite unreliable on our Mac, despite having a WLAN router in the same room. I have attempted to identify the cause of this problem by using the built-in Wireless Diagnostics.

WIreless Diagnostics complains that our iMacs country code is set to DE, although its Region setting is Switzerland. My routers are of course, CH (for Switzerland, as Wireless Diagnostics confirms. A post on MacRumors said that I can correct the discrepancy by creating a new network location, but I see no possibility in network location to specify a country and a newly created network location did not change the situation.

I have read that Apple assigns the country based on how the nearby routers identify themselves, but this is obviously not the case here. This type of behaviour seems IAC inappropriate for a desktop computer which is always connected to the same LAN. How can I convince our Mac that it lives in Switzerland, not in Germany?

iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jan 18, 2021 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Jan 20, 2021 1:52 AM in response to rsbrux

Suggest checking in Network from System Preferences >> Wifi and looking for several Different " Location " listing and remove to offending one(s)

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Answer 2

rsbrux Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 19, 2021 6:55 AM in response to rsbrux

Today the situation has reversed itself: Wireless Diagnostics shows our iMac with country code CH and several surrounding routers (only one of which is ours) with country code DE. We are hundreds of km from the German border. Why is this so unstable?

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Answer 3

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Jan 19, 2021 7:22 AM in response to rsbrux

Try this external site it is safe to use. It will pickup where your ISP is broadcasting from. Example, am located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and it has my location as being 200 KM away from my actual location. Maybe it is the same for yours ?

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Answer 4

rsbrux Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 19, 2021 12:07 PM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for the suggestion, but that's not the problem. My ISP has given me an IP address from Lucerne, in central Switzerland. Furthermore, I have three WLAN routers, and only one of them (an ASUS, which happens to be my gateway router, now claims that I am in DE instead of CH. I strongly suspect that the iMac was connected to the ASUS router yesterday and got the DE country code from it, which caused it to complain about the other two. SInce the iMac is stationary and will presumably stay connected to the same router, I guess it's not a serious problem. The Wireless Diagnostics utility says that it might cause problems with handoff, which I don't expect to take place with the iMac. However, we have two iPads, which roam around the place and sometimes have unexplained connectivity problems. I suspect that this could be the source. My Internet search didn't turn up any way to tell the ASUS to realize it's in Switzerland. In fact, one post said that ASUS uses the country code DE for all of Europe. This is not unreasonable; Swiss telecom standards are generally EU and specifically DE compatible. It would be nice if Apple's WLAN SW would realize that.

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Answer 5

rsbrux Author

Level 1

24 points

Jan 20, 2021 3:01 AM in response to Owl-53

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't see how that can help. To facilitate handoff, all 3 of my routers have the same SSID, so there is no way to make a location exclude one. IAC, the iMac is no longer the problem, now that it is connected to a router with the correct country code. I am more concerned about the iPads, which have no "location" in their settings. They are the devices which actually roam and need to be able to connect to any one of my 3 WLAN routers. Perhaps I should close this thread and open a new one on the iPad board. I have meanwhile opened a ticket with ASUS and will report back what they say.

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Answer 6

Owl-53

Level 10

104,221 points

Jan 20, 2021 3:33 AM in response to rsbrux

Good luck and hope Asus can sort out the issue.

Had seen similar issue earlier where person was located west coast USA but location kept saying IP address was east cost USA. Will continue to see if can find the thread and if found will post back the solution.

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How to fix conflicting country code?

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