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IP Address

does anyone know if Verizon scrambles or mask the IP addresses of it's DSL customers? I notice when I log on Facebook only sometimes is my location accurate on the active sessions security page. Sometimes it's completely different locations 30 miles away. If it's not Verizon or Facebook's doing I was worried that maybe someone else is hacking into my account from that location.

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dslr595148

I used Google to lookup ip address location wrong

and considering the results back, I would not be to worried about the location that it gives.

smith6612

GeoIP services that many websites such as Facebook use, tend to be on a best effort basis. Unless the website does what Google does, where they use the nearby Wi-Fi signals to track your location, or what mobile phones do by enabling the GPS radio, GeoIP is essentially an educated guess. The providers only know what the ISP provides to them, and this information is not always updated.

I would be worried if Facebook starts notifying you that your account has been logged into from someplace thousands of miles away, but not from a place in your local area. I would consider setting up two-factor authentication for your Facebook account as well. Some sites like Facebook can send you an SMS message to a mobile phone when you attempt to log in from an unknown computer/location/device. That way, even if someone gets your password they would still require your phone to get past the login or password recovery steps.

Verizon also does not mask IP addresses currently. Eventually, Verizon will be rolling out a something they call "Carrier Grade Network" to the DSL Network which is more common;y known as Carrier Grade NAT. This is similar to what your home router does, by not giving machines direct two way connectivity to the Internet, but by putting them through a device which can share one IP address with many devices. On a grand scale, you'll start to see many Verizon DSL connections using the same IP Address, yet the IP you see your modem holding on your end will be something that cannot be reached from the Internet directly. Just do a web search on Carrier Grade NAT and you'll find articles on what I'm talking about in depth.

K_I_S_S

I would tend to disagree. My location is reported in a totally different state. This does cause some problems with some websites.

I was told the serves supporting my location are in that other state, The local DSLAMS typically transprt over ATM to the routers that assign the IP addresses. ATM , apprently, really has no idea where you are. See the wikipedia article on ATM.

Thus, the router that is hosting your IP address would be located in the other city, thus it's location is the other city.

A modem in bridge may act differently that an modem that has a public IP address. In Bridge mode, internal packert would reach the route rin the other state outgoing, but would not reach your modem when incoming.

A modem in mon bridge would terminate at the modem in the premesis.

At least this is how I understand the process.

If Verizon used the VCI and VPI, I'll bet they could determine if the IP was from which state. It's better all around if the ISP assigns a large pool of addresses to a large number of users than to split it up. e.g; one ad 100% assigned to two regions and they decide to make it 70%/30%. Clearly 100% is better,

Taking a cursery look at the the DNS location record, its based on the Domain name. That record would have to be IP address specific. So, let's say it was IP address specific. Verizon could respond immediately to the correct Geolocation, but the change has to probabagate through all of the nameservers and this could take days,

One could hope that with IPV6 that there is hope it could be fixed with the larger address space available. I'm in no way to know how IPV6 is going to affect Home Internet, but it has to eventually affect Verizon.

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