I live in Los Angeles County California, and the home internet is showing the different sites that I am in Las Vegas. This creates a problem from things like streaming YouTube TV, to access my local channels. Spent many hours with Home Internet (they act like they have never heard of the problem - yet I have seen some comment on this chat (doesn't T-Mo monitor the chat room, (another question for another day))). It was suggested that I wire my personal router into the T-Mo router, and at first it appeared to work but then when I went to You Tube it showed location as Vegas again, An hour on chat with You-tube (this person appeared to know what they were talking about) and he finally said that You tube uses your IP address to determian where you have access and since my was saying Vegas that all they can do. Anyone have any suggestions on a work around, I would hate to go back to Spectrum to solfe the issue.

The person that marked this as solved it an idiot. The issue is with the lease time of 12 hours. Your public IP can change every 12 hours. The server that hands out or assigns the IP (DHCP server) to the gateway can assign an IP that is owned by T-MOBILE from the ENTIRE network and not just the network segments that a reflective of your geographic location. This is means the towers are not segmented into geographic segments, but just in network segments that can pull an IP for anywhere in the country. I live in Kansas but my home internet is choosing a Denver, Co or a GA location for me. Who is the person that designed this?T-Mobile's solution to me was to set a static IP, but I would have to convert to a business account. I have no idea if this is going to cost more money monthly, but it better not, as I will just cancel and go back to the cable company that provides this for free as part of the standard setup.

With websites on the computer, I discovered that with Firefox, just clicking in the allow location pop-up box works. For some reason, Chrome and the Edge usually don't. I still will be told my location is something it's not and I'm not in my state.

janetsch wrote: Thank you for your reply. I have a chrome laptop and nothing can prevent this. I don't think we should be charged as much for our service if we have to bother with changing our address when browsing, for example, google shopping and my banking institution and more. The thing is I wasn't forewarned of this. Why is Tmobile not fixing this??? Primarily because it's not a T-Mobile issue as noted here:https://community.t-mobile.com/troubleshooting-38/t-mobile-home-internet-location-issue-44552?postid=203517#post203517T-Mobile cannot reasonably be expected to correct flaws in operating systems, apps or browsers.T-Mobile does provide some compatibility requirements for T-Mobile's Home Internet Service and in particular for live streaming but they fail to mention that equally applies to other content providers who rely on IP address geolocation:https://www.t-mobile.com/support/home-internet/connectI agree that T-Mobile should make this clearer and also clarify it in their Open Internet Policies which the FCC requires published. See Open Internet link at the bottom of this page. When you signed up with T-Mobile they probably mentioned those policies in passing (most folks don't read them anyway and are unaware of certain disclaimers).

This is how cellular internet works just like a cell phone. The local towers connect to a backend that could be a long distance from your physical location. As for YoutubeTV, you just update your location using your YoutubeTV mobile app and it will use the GPS of your smartphone to identify location. I assume you are trying to set the location on a streaming device so just follow the onscreen instructions that tell you to open the mobile app. I have both TMO Home internet and YoutubeTV and using the YoutubeTV mobile app to pinpoint location works fine.

Not defending TMO since they should be able to better explain this phenomenon by themselves... but this really is the fault of content providers that rely on IP-based geolocation databases. In a wired world they are accurate but with mobile and satellite technologies your location can be very far away from your network's point of presence, as noted by Cali Cat above. There's nothing in an IP address that identifies your location accurately - the only location that is 100% certain from your IP address is your country (unless using a VPN).Content providers that rely on GPS based location are generally accurate but even then there are ways to fake them out or spoof (giving you more flexibility) but not all devices have GPS capability and methods as described buy Cali Cat for YTTV may be available from your content provider.

t-mobile Home Internet - Location Issue

BobT
LTE Learner
Hace 2 años
Snooooopy wrote:

I often get messages on my cell phone about verifying it's me from banks and such. I think that is mostly 2-step verification, though, and doesn't have anything to do with location. (The messages often do show I'm in another state, however.) There are only two websites I can't fully access with the Chrome browser, due to location problems. My state lottery website is one. (You can only play online if you are in the state.) Since I can play using the Firefox browser, it's no big deal. Although Firefox recently asked if I wanted to turn on VPN. Would doing so likely get me location problems with that browser, too? I know nothing about VPN.

Without getting into technical details, a VPN essentially works in two ways: it conceals your true IP address and which obscures your location with those content providers relying upon IP address based geo-location; and it encrypts your traffic such that nobody can see it or modify it (including your ISP). Some folks have success with the location issues provided they are assigned a VPN server in their region but that's not always the case. At the same time be aware that some sites block access altogether if a VPN is detected.
Since you do mention Chrome and Firefox, there is an add-in (or extension) called Location Guard that can be used to establish your proper location. It also works on Microsoft's Edge. In all of these cases it can be successful provided the content provider (or site) relies upon the browser's built-in java script API and not an inaccurate geo-location database service. The add-in is only available for desktop browsers at this time. It works on most websites for me using any of the browsers mentioned and saves me a lot of aggravation.
P.S. For me it’s always preferable to have banks and other critical sites perform 2 step authorization from a pure security perspective (although some allow turning it off at your own peril).
Matt2h
Roaming Rookie
Hace 5 meses
I get this too. I'm in the Lancaster area and it thinks I'm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This has triggered extra security and identity verification measures for certain accounts when attempting to log in.
SoCal_Mark
Newbie Caller
Hace 3 años
Thanks Cali, Cat - I was on a chat with YouTube last night and we tried multiple option and it kept defaulting back. For some reason the TV and or Roku could not connect to my tablet (which is connected to the same wifi),I will try the phone, I see its local area is what it needs to be, next will try the TV and Roku and see if they can connect with the phone. Hopefully once set it will stay set or does the phone need to be constantly updating the location. SoCal Mark.
Cali_Cat
Bandwidth Buddy
Hace 3 años
SoCal Mark wrote:

Thanks Cali, Cat - I was on a chat with YouTube last night and we tried multiple option and it kept defaulting back. For some reason the TV and or Roku could not connect to my tablet (which is connected to the same wifi),I will try the phone, I see its local area is what it needs to be, next will try the TV and Roku and see if they can connect with the phone. Hopefully once set it will stay set or does the phone need to be constantly updating the location. SoCal Mark.

My device is Apple TV and I also used Amazon FireTV Stick before Apple. Both YoutubeTV apps allow you to update your location and when you do, it will tell you to open your mobile app so it can use GPS. You cannot type in your zip code.
DR_A
Newbie Caller
Hace 3 años
I have the same issue Boston, MA and southwest CT. This only started happening about 2-3 months ago. From fall '21 to Jun '22 things were fine.
garbear1013
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
That's not always true, I live in the state of Montana and I'm picking up stuff from Sacramento California, I have Roku TV and I went and reset the ZIP code and all that on my TV nothing happened I still get from California. I called these people up three times they said since my IP address is out of California there's nothing you can do they suggest I go buy a new router to work around it , this is total , I will not recommend T-Mobile's internet service ever they're they take their internet box
gocirino
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
I live east of Cleveland and just picked up TM home internet.. Has my location in Dearborn MI constantly. Support is useless too. They act like Im the only one who has this problem but many others do also. Back to cable!
vdelacam
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
I have same problem. I have NY cell # but live in Rhode Island. Using mlbtv app I had to turn on my Fios wifi in order to not get blacked out watching my Mets.Got rid of Fios and switched to TMO internet and no matter what I do my IP address shows me in NY on all my TMO connected devices in my home. Spent hours talking to TMO tech. They made same suggestion to connect a router to my TMO router but that didn't work.
ThomasJ
Network Novice
Hace 3 años
Since switching to T-Mobile home internet I have the same issue on my Roku TV. I live near Phoenix, Arizona but Roku displays content from Los Angeles, California. Please let me know if there is a solution for this!
ThomasJ
Network Novice
Hace 2 años
I have an update on this…... I finally called T-Mobile support about the wrong location content on our Roku TV. The rep looked at my account and said she noticed some incorrect location information and she suggested re-checking things in a couple of days. I was a bit skeptical but now we are correctly gettting Phoenix content on the Roku TV at last (instead of Los Angeles). I can't say for sure exactly what she found that was incorrect but I would suggest taking the time to give them a call… it just may help!