Location Issue on my laptop with Windows 11

Actually, it's not a bug, it's a feature, or really the combination of several features all based on the same core technology that's resulting in at least some of these relatively confusing location symptoms on various Windows 10 or 11 devices using the Edge browser and other apps like Maps.

I'm surprised it took me so long to see it. but I began to get a different picture last night as I played around with those same two WhereIAm and Where am I, IP and geolocation websites selections you provided in your last post.

I initially discovered that though the first IP address location responded with the address for the regional POP from which my ISP typically peers my network traffic onto the wider Internet, the second app instead displayed a location in Bellevue, WA. The other 2 selections I tried for Where I am right now was at the center of Boydton, Va and the similar Where am I right now response was an error indication to 'Share your location'.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my configuration for Windows has long had the Location disabled, as well as relatively extreme settings in both Windows, Edge and previous browsers like Internet Explorer in order to both protect my privacy and suppress those annoying and often creepy targeted advertisements.

While I was doing this, I soon learned that at least the Where am I website has a Google backend, while both of these apps started displaying copious advertising that had clearly been suppressed by my previous settings, which increased in number and location accuracy and often displayed the infamous Google Ads symbol as I loosened and removed these protections. Going into the Edge - Cookie settings - Recent activity and changing the location permission from blocked to allowed solved that location sharing issue for the 2nd app.

At this point I was finally seeing the more accurate locations displayed for both of the app's selections, though I won't share them here since they're too revealing and really unnecessary. Suffice it to say that the IP address items were still less specific as you'd expect, but the ones using more precise geolocation technology were often within a few houses of my true location.

Based on the Edge browser settings I'd changed I began to realize what was likely the true cause underlying all of my own issues, since virtually everything I changed after the initial Windows Location related items had a relatively obvious relationship to the new Microsoft Edge Secure Network - VPN item that recently appeared in the Browser Essentials toolbar selection.

Based on all of this, I did a search for Boydton, VA and datacenter which found the following among many other results over the last decade.

Southern Virginia - Microsoft Local

Using the address provided by any of those Boydton, VA results to open Microsoft Maps, by simply backing out to a wider view of the area, first a single and then multiple other buildings appeared to the northeast of the town itself, with a few buildings complete and several in various stages of construction exactly as the articles my search had found would imply, including one as recent as late 2023 that mentioned an added six-building expansion.

So, what this all means is that just like previous threads everywhere and I had also mentioned in an earlier post, he use of a VPN will interfere with the operation of location information, since the client will appear to be located wherever the server that's supporting it is located. Since Boydton. VA is apparently the east coast presence for Microsoft Personal accounts, as well as much of the Azure tenant presence as well, it's a likely result when any of these Edge Secure Network - VPN or other related features in Privacy and Security services are enabled.

However, since that What is my IP selection for the second where-am-i website must at least in my case connect to a west coast website, the location displayed for that appears to come from another datacenter in Bellevue, WA, which for longtime Microsoft watchers like me is a well-known secondary location of many Microsoft offices.

The fact that a few of the similar complaints I've seen in other threads mention locations all over the world, it's clear that these Edge Secure Network services must be getting deployed elsewhere, as well as may be enabled by default, though that last part is just a guess as to why some here seem to think these changes occurred without any modification on their part. It's still possible they've simply enabled one of these for other reasons just as I had long ago, and simply forgot they'd done it as well as having no idea of the potential side effects relating to location.

The moral of the story here is that it's up to you to decide which is more important, the additional security or privacy that these Secure Network features provide or the validity of location data that inherently means your providing that private information to the websites or apps you're accessing as well.

My mention above that I suspect this may be affecting certain similar situations for those having problems with automatic selection of Regional or Time zone settings is based on the fact that Microsoft likely uses these same methods to determine this location information as well. Depending on various other configuration settings an individual may have made similar to my own that limit access to location, it's possible that in combination with the really accurate, but unintentionally incorrect location information acquired from datacenters may be interfering with this set of services well.

Rob

Thanks for this Rob, I had great hopes that syncing the time would resolve my issue, but apparently not. I too am stuck in Boydton, VA. Some browser work, some do not. Chrome puts me in the correct location, but Firefox and Edge put me in Boydton, VA. When I first go to the maps page it is fairly close to my actual location, but as soon as I click the centre location button, and allow location access, off we go to Boydton. It doesn't matter if I'm using Google maps or Bing maps, the result is the same. Only Chrome shows the correct location.

Out of curiosity I checked my ip location in at least half a dozen location services and every one of them put me in the correct location, except Where am I now? - My current location in real time (whereiam.net), which put me in, you guessed it, Boydton, VA.

John

Also, I checked my Microsoft Activity, and it's logging my successful attempts using IPv4.

Thanks very much Rob. Do you know if there is a way to force W11 to revert to IPV4 addresses, and thus reset my W11 location based on the more accurate, if older, IPV4 addressing by my ISP?

My ISP, by the way, is Starlink. I suspected Starlink was the problem, but then again an iPhone and IPads at my current address and none of them gets the address wrong. But as you said, that may be because those devices have GPS location components that my laptop does not.

Nick

Nick,

Your situation with Starlink may be somewhat unique due to the satellite provided connection, but since the IP address provided should really be associated with your home location, I'd think they might have solved this by permanently assigning an address to your local device.

However, in your case that's what you'd want to bring to the Starlink Support as a question, since if they're dynamically assigning these addresses literally on-the-fly, then you'd either get an IP associated with the 15-mile zone I see in articles that your device is assigned to, or possibly even worse, one from a larger pool of addresses used in your general region or country.

I can't really believe they'd have bothered to make IPv6 available to solve the individual device routing issues it exists to resolve though, while still just assigning them randomly rather than to a specific location. So inaccurate location information related to your own specific assigned IPv6 address seems more likely in any case.

Rob

Thanks very much Rob. Do you know if there is a way to force W11 to revert to IPV4 addresses, and thus reset my W11 location based on the more accurate, if older, IPV4 addressing by my ISP?

My ISP, by the way, is Starlink. I suspected Starlink was the problem, but then again an iPhone and IPads at my current address and none of them gets the address wrong. But as you said, that may be because those devices have GPS location components that my laptop does not.

Nick