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Wifi ipad shows wrong location when connected at home. When connected at a public wifi it's correct. My first gen ipod touch shows the right location even at home. Apple suggests it is in the linksys router setup. Linksys suggested a reset to factory defaults, but that did not help. Have been through the ipad reset, the network reset without success. Any ideas?
iPad 2
The WiFi location determination is sloppy at best. There is quite a bit of secrecy about the mechanism but apparently some WiFi routers are identified in a database that's used by Location Services. In any event, the physically closest router that's in the database is used to identify your location.
I live in house #7. My home is never identified as the location. Usually, house #1 (100 yards down the street) is given as the location as my neighbor there always has his router powered. However, when my neighbor across the street in either #6 or #8 powers up his router, my location changes to whichever one is powered. If both are powered, it picks #6.
I have been completely unable to figure out how to get my router in the database.
The WiFi location determination is sloppy at best. There is quite a bit of secrecy about the mechanism but apparently some WiFi routers are identified in a database that's used by Location Services. In any event, the physically closest router that's in the database is used to identify your location.
I live in house #7. My home is never identified as the location. Usually, house #1 (100 yards down the street) is given as the location as my neighbor there always has his router powered. However, when my neighbor across the street in either #6 or #8 powers up his router, my location changes to whichever one is powered. If both are powered, it picks #6.
I have been completely unable to figure out how to get my router in the database.
I wish mine was that close. Mine shows that it is in Europe when it is actually in the US. Very frustrating. Apple pointed me toward a router issue. How would that relate to the database that is being used. Who is the database keeper?
russfromfairhill wrote:
I wish mine was that close. Mine shows that it is in Europe when it is actually in the US. Very frustrating. Apple pointed me toward a router issue. How would that relate to the database that is being used. Who is the database keeper?
I have been unable to determine who maintains the database.
U.s. vs. Europe? That's the worst that I've seen.
Go to a Starbucks at least ten miles away and see what happens.
Well, went to Starbucks and it found the correct location. Also found correct location at local library. When I made the 20 minute drive home, though, I found that I had transported from Maryland to Germany again.
Is there anywhere in the setup for a linksys router where location could be set other than just the time zone? I've looked but I can't find anything.
There must be a fix for this. I have faith.
Clearly the problem is in the router. Try something easy - power down, wait ten seconds and power up again. If that doesn't work, you'll need to access the router's setup menu and, even then, I can't give you any confidence that you'll find a solution.
Apple maintains their own database for location services.
It's not published on how/where they get this data or how to update it.
Have tyou tried turning off location services then turning it back on (in Settings)?
Yes, I tried turning off location services and then turning back on. Also powered down the ipad and turned it back on. Did a hard reset. Did a network reset.
Really has me baffled.
I appreciate these all of these suggestions, by the way. But we haven't found it yet.
My router is not being located either.
It shows my location from my neighbor's router, half a block away.
For some reason, the database thinks that your router/modem is in Germany. Again, the workings of the database are somewhat secret. It can't be something comparable to the conditions that I experience because it's physically impossible for a WiFi signal to go from Germany to the U.S. You have got to be receiving a local signal.
If nothing works, it would make sense to swap out the router/modem. I don't know if you want to spend money but, if a swap is a major hassle, you could buy an Airport Express for $99 and plug it into an Ethernet port of your existing router/modem. Step #2 is to go into the router/modem administrative menu and turn WiFi off (to ensure that Location Services chooses the correct box,
Not quite ready to do that yet. I'm sure there's a way to fix this, or at least understand why it's happening. The whole thing is just a little too mysterious for me, with the database that Apple never mentioned to me on the phone, a router that seems to "know" that it's in Germany but we can't find out why. I'd really just like to understand.
If you bring an iPhone (anyone's iPhone) into your home briefly and turn on a Location Services app such as Maps, the true location of your router and other nearby wi-fi hotspots may eventually get transmitted to Apple's database of wi-fi hotspots. An iPad without cellular capability needs to access such a database in order to locate itself.
It's my understanding that Apple used to use a company called "SkyHook" to determine the location of wi-fi hotspots, but is no longer doing so. Instead Apple now uses "crowd-sourced" iPhone data to maintain its own database of wi-fi hotspot locations, taking advantage of the iPhone's GPS and cellular circuitry to "geo-tag" nearby wi-fi networks and periodically send their locations to Apple.
Do you remember the recent publicity about whether Apple is "tracking" individual iPhone users? Apple responded with this document:
I'm not certain whether wi-fi iPads without 3G currently use the same Apple database, but it seems likely that they do.
I manually added my router/modem to Skyhook maybe a dozen times last year. It accomplished zero.
This was dated July 2010:
Philly_Phan wrote:
I manually added my router/modem to Skyhook maybe a dozen times last year. It accomplished zero.
It added your location to their database but that does nothing for your iOS device.
Apple quit using it for devices wtih iOS 3.2 or later, in April 2010.
Yeah, but no one knows how to update whatever database Apple is currently using. It appears to be a dark secret.
My wifi ipad shows the wrong physical location when connected at home.
