5G Home Internet IP Address Issues

[ChristmasElf1]

I got 5G Home Internet in late July and have had issues with a dynamic IP Address outside of my state which causes playback issues with my YouTube TV account. I contacted customer service and was told that Verizon couldn't do anything about this problem.

However, my brother in law has T-Mobile Home Internet and they were having the same issue but after enough customers complained they were able to resolve the problem.

So let me get this straight. T-Mobile was able to correct the issue but Verizon can't? Sounds to me like Verizon doesn't want to correct this problem.

I'm not paying $50 a month for so-so service with local channels that don't match my home area. Verizon needs to stop making excuses and get this resolved or I'll be getting rid of this service.

[vzw_customer_support]

spideyV, we're sorry about the issues you're having with the location. Due to the way your 5G Home Internet works, it's not possible to set the IP to a local one and that can cause issues. Contacting your TV provider will be the best way to find a solution to this problem. 

~Jesse

[User69043754]

Same problem. Wish they would fix this. 

[pcgear]

You can fix this yourself without involving Verizon or YouTube TV.  

Using a VPN service with a streaming TV option, you can present a stable internet IP address to your streaming providers no matter where you are.   I use Fastest VPN but many VPN services provide this option.  I paid for a lifetime subscription over 5 years ago and it's still working great.  I didn't really start using it every day until Netflix started tracking locations and flashing nasty grams.  On Fastest VPN you select USA streaming for your VPN connection. 

At home, all my TVs are using a Firestick with the Fastest VPN app loaded.  It automatically connects to the service when the stick is started up.  From that point, it is completely transparent.    They also have apps for your phone and PC.  Again there are other services to choose from.  By using the app on the Firestick only my tv traffic is directed through the VPN.

This will allow you to stream from multiple locations at the same time or use a primary and backup internet service at your house.   You can fail over from your primary internet to the backup without triggering a location change with your streaming services.

[IPfrustration]

Same problem.  Hulu is saying they will no longer reset my home account, that Verizon needs to stop changing the IP addresses. Hulu only allows 4 changes back to setting "home location" and I am once again down to 2. Verizon needs to change this or I will have to go to another provider. Useless if I can't watch tv with it.

[G_Hosa_Phat]

I just started a "trial run" of the 5G Home Internet and ran into this issue the other day when I launched Hulu on my Xbox. The app prompted me to change my home location, even though nothing has moved and the only difference is that I've connected my network to the Verizon network instead of my ISPs network. I went ahead and told it to update my location, but I'm concerned that a change in my dynamically-assigned IP address (over which I have no control) could cause another "change of location". Considering Hulu only allows 4 changes a year, that could result in my losing access to the services I'm paying them for.

Honestly, this is a pretty significant issue considering how there are several streaming services that are implementing this concept of a "home location" to prevent subscribers from sharing their login information with people outside of their home. It's a reasonable protection for them, but if my ISP reports back to them incorrect location information, they're going to  have to make the assumption that I'm doing something I shouldn't be.

My "previous" ISP also assigns dynamic IP addresses to the CPE (customer-premise equipment), but those IPs are assigned from a node that is local to the customer's location, so they report that location "properly". I'm not sure why I should expect my Verizon 5G Home Internet connection to behave any differently. The gateway device connects to a cell tower, that cell tower assigns the device a dynamic IP address from a localized network range that reports back a relatively accurate location. I realize that's a "simplified" explanation, but that's how I would assume it would work from a high-level view of the networking involved.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a static IP address I could use for my homelab systems so I could avoid DDNS or other "workaround" solutions, but I'm not going to go asking for the moon here. All I expect/want is for the IP address assigned to my 5G gateway to not report that I've moved half way across the country any time the lease expires and it gets a new address from the same cell tower. @vzw_customer_support 

[G_Hosa_Phat]

UPDATE:

I checked from my cell phone what IP address my internal network is reporting using an online IP address location utility (whatismyipaddress[dot]com) and found that, interestingly enough, my IPv6 address is showing the correct location. However, the IPv4 address is showing a location in another state entirely. When I checked from my laptop running through my home router (connected to my 5G gateway), it doesn't detect an IPv6 address, but when I switch the WiFi connection over to the 5G gateway, it does. Testing from my laptop on both wireless networks show the same IPv4 address.

Another interesting fact is that both the IPv6 and IPv4 addresses are listed as Verizon Business and "Likely static IP", which seems very odd. Now, as I intimated above, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to using a static IP address. I do software development and run my own servers for certain content that would greatly benefit from a static IP. I just also know that ISPs are not going to give just anyone a static IP address without charging a premium for the benefit.

My family and I have been with Verizon for almost 20 years now. If Verizon is unable or unwilling to address and resolve this issue and - as other commenters have pointed out - there are other cellular carriers who have it functioning as expected, it may, unfortunately, be necessary for me to take my family's services to them. It's simply not acceptable with the technology available today that an ISP's inability to provide a reasonably accurate and "consistent" representation of the relative location of their customers' equipment should penalize the users of their service. I mean, if I were using some VPN software to obfuscate my equipment's IP address, that would be understandable. However, this issue is directly caused by the location information associated with the Verizon-assigned dynamic IP address served by Verizon's network. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello, G_Hosa_Phat. Thank you so much for this info. Please share more details on what exact issues you are experiencing. 

-Natasha

[G_Hosa_Phat]

Natasha @vzw_customer_support 

I'm not sure what additional details I can provide beyond what I've already posted in my three (now four) comments on this thread. The IPv4 and IPv6 addresses assigned to my 5G Home Internet gateway device are being allocated from two totally separate geographical locations: IPv6 is correctly reporting my home location, while IPv4 is reporting a location over 200 miles away.

This affects the streaming services to which I subscribe, including Hulu where it seems to be detecting the IPv4 address. This means that Hulu thinks I've "moved" to another state entirely, which, in turn, means I had to change my "home location" registered with that service. This results in the local channels I pay them to receive being incorrectly served from another state's local broadcasters.

Additionally, since these streaming services allow only a limited number of these changes to a user's "home location" to prevent people from sharing their account with people outside their home and effectively getting access to the service for "free", this change decrements my available change count. If the Verizon 5G Home Internet service changes my dynamic IP address because the DHCP lease expires and the new IP is located somewhere else, this will quickly exhaust my available location changes, even though none of my equipment has moved an inch.

I've provided as much detail as I can think of. Please let me know if any of the information I've provided is still unclear or if you need any specific additional information and I will do my best to obtain and provide it.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi G_Hosa_Phat. I use live-streaming too and it is frustrating when the local channels are not available. Live-streaming has been brought up in chat here in the past. Here is the Hulu resource for Manage your Home network for Live TV:  

https://help.hulu.com/article/hulu-manage-home-network#set

Please let us know how the Verizon home services are working with other devices connected. We can dig deeper with your help.

-Deb

[G_Hosa_Phat]

Thank you, Deb @vzw_customer_support but I'm not having any problems setting my "home location" with Hulu. The app automatically detects the new IP address and, using IP geolocation, determines that I'm in a new location/region. This is not device-specific, nor is it app-specific. All devices on my internal network that are connected to the 5G home gateway are reporting the same information (as expected).

The problem is that my "home location" has changed since switching over to Verizon's 5G Home Internet, even though none of my devices have moved. The problem is that the 5G Home Internet gateway device is pulling an IP address (apparently the IPv4 address) from a node that's over 200 miles away from my actual, physical location.

The "solution" is to assign both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses from DHCP pools that are actually local to the region associated with the cell tower to which the 5G gateway connects. Please review the information that I've posted in the additional posts I've made in this thread (UPDATE and UPDATE #2) for additional clarification. If I've missed a "critical" piece of the puzzle, please let me know. Thank you again.

[vzw_customer_support]

Help is still here. Please see the link below for the steps to set up your home location and keep us posted on your progress.

https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-227029/

-Natasha

[G_Hosa_Phat]

UPDATE #2:

I spoke with a very helpful and friendly representative last night about this issue (unfortunately, I've forgotten their name). I was told that the issue was going to be escalated to the next tier of Verizon support along with the submission of a "reservation" form of some sort and that I should hear back within 7 days. I'm not sure what kind of "reservation" is necessary - my guess is simply a DHCP reservation so that my 5G gateway always either pulls from a specific pool, or even the same, dynamic DHCP address (effectively making it "static" without really), but I appreciate the fact that they apparently do have a process in place for handling this situation.

My "issue", though, still stands. There are plenty of things that can be done to prevent this from happening in the first place:

1. As I mentioned, the cell tower from which the 5G gateway pulls its signal could/should only assign IPs from a local pool that will report back with reasonably accurate location data. I mean, those towers don't have the power to connect to a device over 200 miles away.
2. Another "cue" that could be used is the customer's own billing/mailing address from Verizon's records. Sure, that may not work for businesses, but we're talking about residential services here. P.O. boxes could make things a little "messy", but it's reasonable to assume that a residential customer with a P.O. box as their billing address is going to be residing somewhere within the general area of that post office and probably not in an entirely different state.
3. Based on the test results from my previous reply, it's clear that something is doing the allocation correctly since my IPv6 address is reporting the correct city/state, so, some sort of "synchronization" and validation test on the network side to ensure the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are coming from the same region seems reasonable. If both are reporting the wrong region, that's an entirely different matter, but at least having them both indicating the same location would be better than what I was seeing.

As I said, the representative I spoke with last night indicated that my issue should be taken care of soon. The troubling thing to me, though, is that it was an issue in the first place. The representative seemed to understand immediately when I started explaining the issue and had a "plan" to get it resolved without much additional input from me. Why?

I know that Network Engineers have a lot on their plate with all of the hardware, software, firmware, configurations, and everything else that goes into planning and implementing even a small network. However, it just seems that a situation like this could've been averted entirely, and who knows how many support calls and community/forum posts could have been prevented at the planning stages.

[nunyabuszes]

Seeing as how your post was from back in June 2024 and it is now Feb 2025 and I am having this exact same issue, I am curious if you got any resolution to this or if you just gave up on it?  It is interesting that some sites see my IP as Dallas, others see it as Oklahoma City (like my youtube tv) but then sites like DB-IP accurately show me in Tulsa area where I am located.  Anyway was hoping maybe you got some resolution to this and could share with me what to ask for or say when contacting verizon about this annoying and frustrating issue.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi nunyabuszes,

We want to make sure that you have all the support you need regarding this issue! While the assigned IP Addresses for 5G Home do not necessarily align with local TV markets which may result in a different location than your actual home, I have included some steps below to correct location settings in Youtube TV:

- Use a mobile device with the cellular data/Wi-Fi off to access the YouTube TV app.

- Click on the profile icon (upper right corner).

- Select the location option on the menu.

- Select UPDATE on the Current Playback Area option.

- Give permission for the app to use location information.

Note: If not successful, visit tv.youtube.com/help and select Contact Us (at the bottom of the page).

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions; we're here for you!

-Necia

[marylandmd]

Verizon, I need to get the IP address “reservation” for our 5G Home Internet service so we don’t continue to have problems with Hulu and other services. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello, we're sorry to learn you're having issues with your IP address and streaming services. We will be sending you a private message to further assist.

~Ivone

[mpw058]

If T-Mobile can provide static IP addresses why can't Verizon?  What is different about your service that you cannot assign static IP addresses?  This Verizon 5G home internet service is the first internet service, wired or WIFI, that I have ever had that only uses dynamic IP addresses.  Why?

[Skerry27]

Verizon,

I am unable to access my local news stations on Peacock and Paramount streaming services because of Verizon’s dynami up address issue. It is very frustrating to have to watch NYC and Albany news stations when I live in Manlius NY. Please fix this issue!

[Annasabin]

I have not been able to watch my local tv stations through streaming on NBC or Paramount with 5G home internet however, I CAN watch local through my phone when connected to Verizon 5G mobile. This is really frustrating and getting to the point where I am considering other internet services. I was told that there would be a local IP address to my area within a year and it has now been almost 2 years. As more people go to streaming you would think Verizon would have thought through this a bit better. 

[vzw_customer_support]

Happy Friday! Being on top of your service is vital, especially if you are managing your programming. Verizon wants to guide you in the right direction.

Our internet uses a variable location. This makes connecting to location-based channels challenging. We recommend checking with your TV provider if they have a solution.

~Gilbert

[DruBlu]

I also have this issue with Hulu, and I have to call Hulu every time, but I have a much worse problem. I have to use an app to watch my team because im 2 states away from the team, so i cant go to the games. My state is in their viewingarea, so im in the blackout zone, meaning i cant get the games on espn+, so i have to use the team's app. But verizon's dynamic ip makes it look like I'm in a different state altogether, so I'm denied access. By law, the team's app can't bypass that, so it has to be Verizon. They act like they're trying when I speak to them for hours at a time, but nothing gets resolved. How many people will it take before they listen? I spent $70 for this app, and it's their fault it's being wasted.