How does the Mac determine its location?
How does the Mac determine its location, because my MBP is usually wrong.
MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 2.8,16,512 MacBookPro11,3
Through your router.
5 replies
Interesting but perplexing. If I go to iCloud.com I see my Mac within about a 30' circle of where it actually is, however when I use Speedtest.net, take a test then click My Results then click Net Index and click Go To My Location. A dialog box pops up asking me if I want this site to use my location and I click OK. Sometime the result is the next town over sometimes it's a town about 7 miles away. The router is from my cable company so I don't know much about it. Perhaps there's some setting I'm missing.
Your location in iCloud seems working, not sure how Speedtest use/implement location.
Most router has a small reset button where you use a pin to reset it, not sure about yours though.
There are two ways your location can be determined. First, you Mac can gain its geographical location from your WiFi router and for this to work your computer must be using WiFi. This is part of the Mac’s Location Services and applications have to explicitly be given permission to use this data. The second method is through your ISP router. Your location is known to your ISP but isn’t broadcast to the world (which is why companies suing suspected pirates must get a warrant forcing the ISP to turn over your location) but the ISP’s router locations are known. So a Web site that wants to know your location can approximate it based on the router you are accessing the Internet from.
from your location service or your wifi router
i am not sure but i think it uses your ip address in some situations.
you can search "what is my ip" in the google to tell you where you are!
How does the Mac determine its location?