Forum Discussion
walmart wont change my address
Not defending TMO but actually, it's Walmart's "fault" (actually their misinformed developers) for relying upon inaccurate IP-based geolocation services - these are notoriously inaccurate with mobile carrier infrastructure. There's nothing in the IP standard that says anything about location except country - those using the technique are guessing and some guesses are better than others. It's a long-standing issue for mobile because their physical network infrastructure differs dramatically from that of wire-line (land-based) services. Be thankful you're not on satellite internet - when I was on it my "local" Home Depot was some 2000+ miles away unless I used something like Location Guard for Firefox or Chrome.
Reliance upon GPS location is the solution, but not all devices offer GPS and even then apps must have permission to access it.
In the case of the Walmart app you need to allow it the precise GPS location access. You can also specify your store and it seems to remember it. If using a mobile browser you need to allow the browser access to precise GPS location. In the case of a laptop/desktop browser you're pretty much at the mercy of the geolocation method and services a site opts to use (Location Guard may be useful when using Firefox or Chrome if the site uses the browser's API). Browser sites may also reply upon cookies once you've established your correct location. Otherwixe you typically have to login.
If you want to see where your traffic is routed out go to speed.cloudflare.com and you can run a speed test and see where the traffic "originates" and where the Cloud Flare test destination service is. There are lots of useful tools out there. It is interesting to go to whatismyipaddress.com or say use ip.me on your phone to see the IPv6 address your cell phone has associated with it.
With the 5G broadband services served on the same infrastructure as mobile services it becomes clear why specific characteristics are how they are. The cost of wired services has led to more investment and expansion into the airwaves. It will just keep going. The more you read about it things do become clearer. Everyone seems to want to be connected. It is a crazy fast paced world. Buckle UP!
