Why does the Internet think I'm in Scandinavia or something?

[DaveJ]

I didn't think much of it when I went to ABC.com and it wouldn't let me watch Lost because their site said I wasn't in the U.S. But now, I just went to Facebook to write my mom a note, and it says "Met Facebook ben je verbonden en deel..." What does that mean?

Anyway, just interesting, never happened before. I'm on a train in the US using Verizon wireless mifi and a Windows 7 notebook. I'll just call Verizon if nobody knows.

[RoyGBiv]

1. Not sure ...

Sounds like you're running through a VPN or a proxy that presents your IP address as though you're elsewhere. I run through a VPN that gives me a European IP at times when I need it for something, and I've used proxies that do something similar. Google automatically changes the way it presents when it detects an IP that can be associated with a certain language, i.e. a German proxy I used would cause Google to present in German unless I changed it. I suppose Facebook does the same, although you can change that (or could) via some setting.

I don't know how that MIFI device nor Verizon's wireless in general really works on the backend, so it could be something there, but it doesn't sound like something that should be happening.

[DaveJ]

2. Yes it is quite strange

Anyway, it's not doing it anymore. I realized there is a website called http://whatismyipaddress.com/ that maybe I'll use next time this happens.

[Warpy]

3. When I enable Tor, I usually get adverts in Dutch

If someone else uses that computer, make sure it doesn't have something like Tor on it that does a round robin IP spoof.

That is Dutch, by the way.

[david13]

4. You know Dave, maybe you are just in Scandanavia and don't

realize it. That happened to me once. I thought I was in Germany, but it turned out I was in Switzerland.
Also, in traveling, I used to wake up, and think, oh my gawd, I'm in New York, and I'm supposed to be in Los Angeles. Then I would realize, that no, I did come back to Los Angeles.
So, do a double check.
dc

[MyNameGoesHere]

5. Geolocation maybe.

More and more ISP's, Mobile providers, and browsers are starting to use this emerging technology. If you use firefox make sure it is off. However, Verizon is really deep into this technology. I suspect it was them and there system went haywire.



Location-Aware Browsing is always opt-in in Firefox. No location information is ever sent without your permission. If you wish to disable the feature completely, please follow this set of steps:

* In the URL bar, type about:config
* Type geo.enabled
* Double click on the geo.enabled preference
* Location-Aware Browsing is now disabled