Forum Discussion
Any Windows computer on my Telus Wi Fi has wrong location
For the last month or so, location services for any Windows computer (laptop, 2 in 1, Surface, etc.) that connects to my home Wi Fi says we are in Sacramento, California, instead of my actual home he...
Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User- Which router are you using? One provided by Telus or your own?
- If you plug your PCs into an ethernet connection at home, do they have the same issue?
- If you turn location services off completely on your computer(s), what location comes up?
Sorry for the slow response. Life intervened.
- Same router I got from Telus.
- With Wi Fi and location services turned off and the computer wired into the router, the location shows correctly in Bing and Google Maps.
- With location services turned off and the computer connected over Wi Fi, Bing and Google Maps location goes back to Sacramento.
- Nighthawk
Life happens. No worries.
Both wifi and hardwired should have the exact same location. In Windows, there are separate settings for wifi and ethernet. If you look at your wifi configuration, does it show a proxy or VPN active in there? Do you use a third party VPN like NordVPN, PIA, etc.? Do you use custom DNS settings? While it's very unlikely, are you absolutely sure it's your wifi network that you're connecting to?
Can you also do one more test? When on wifi only, check your external IP addresses here. Do the same when connected by ethernet. Please do not post the IP address itself here. The external IP address should match under normal circumstances. If they do not match, then something is interfering with your PCs while on wifi.
As for the Telus router, from my experience with the one I have (T3200), I only see DNS settings for the LAN/WAN but not separate ones for wifi and ethernet. I would assume the other routers have similar configurations.
No VPN or proxy is active or configured on my computers or on any of the computers that visit my home. Wired or wireless, I get the same IP address, and it always reports the correct location in Calgary.
I remembered that a location history is stored in the cloud as well, in our Microsoft accounts, so I cleared out that history too. Once I did that, Bing and Google Maps started finding my location correctly-ish (can't find exact location, but at least gets the city right), as long as I have location services disabled. However, Any time I enable location services, it immediately goes back to Sacramento. Of course, Maps can't find location at all with the services disabled.
One of my friends has a Mac book. I'm going to ask him to bring it over and try the same thing when connected to my wi-fi. If that device has no issues, that would rule out the wi-fi. He's never mentioned any issues with time zones changing when he's over, which is how we all first detected the issue when it started happening, but I haven't specifically asked him to check location in Google maps. I suspect the problem is entirely within Windows location services and however it decides your location.
Spoke too soon. Google maps still thinks I'm in Sacramento, even with location history cleared and location services turned off. Bing maps, however, gets that I'm in Calgary as long as the services are off.
I'm stumped.
