Help me understand IP addresses...

[Foosters 17856]

...and why mine's fucked up. 

I understand what they are, but I'm dealing with a situation that has me pretty confused.

I live in southern California and have had an MLB TV account for years. Only games that have ever been blacked out are the Dodgers and Angels.

Two weeks ago, I try to flip on the Astros game and get the blackout message. Try some other games, none blacked out except for the Rangers. I conclude that it thinks I'm in Texas. Try the SoCal teams, and they're still blacked out too. 

Cleared cache, signed out, uninstalled app, rebooted modem, tried app on phone and PS4 as well. Nothing works.

Called MLB TV and they tell me it's because I'm located in Austin, TX. Tells me to call my internet provider.

Called at&t and they tell me that it's not then, but it's these independent, 3rd party IP location companies that content providers rely on to inform them of where the users are located. 

Um, what 

Guy from ATT says they rely on IPLocationTool.com, or something, and when I go to that website it shows that I'm in Austin. AT&T tells me to contact these 3rd party companies and ask them to change it. Like that's even an option. Go to like a dozen of these free sites and 90% show the correct location, but there's a few showing Austin, and a few showing I'm in Redmond, WA??

So, what the fuck is happening here and what can be done?

[ztejas 43452]

Just get a VPN, dude. 

i.e. you can have your address be whatever you want it to be. It's also a lot more secure. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by ztejas

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

I think you have to move to Austin now

Edited June 2, 2023 by NeverMarryAStripper

[Foosters 17856]

3 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Just get a VPN, dude. 

i.e. you can have your address be whatever you want it to be. It's also a lot more secure. 

I've had one in the past but it was wonky and didn't seem to work that well. Was one of the reputable ones too , but yeah, I can look into that again.

Do you have a free one you'd recommend?

[ztejas 43452]

5 minutes ago, Foosters said:

I've had one in the past but it was wonky and didn't seem to work that well. Was one of the reputable ones too , but yeah, I can look into that again.

Do you have a free one you'd recommend?

You're going to have to pay to get any sort of quality. 

I've used PIA in the past and never had any issues. Looks like you can get a year for $40. But they also have a 30 day money back guarantee. 

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/offer/best?coupon=official-site&utm_campaign=18174528942&utm_adgroup=143585570387&keyword=private internet access&ms=gb&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNWwo-ZJsLxs3MEMe7dIFl7hj-0-200l076IPueID85692M2wzrgTtQxoCbDQQAvD_BwE

I would imagine @immamac knows his stuff here. 

Edited June 2, 2023 by ztejas

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

The problem is you like baseball.

[Hate 20108]

5 minutes ago, Foosters said:

I've had one in the past but it was wonky and didn't seem to work that well. Was one of the reputable ones too , but yeah, I can look into that again.

Do you have a free one you'd recommend?

You pretty much have to pay for anything worth a shit, just like with the rest of the things in this world.

[Foosters 17856]

Just now, Hate said:

You pretty much have to pay for anything worth a shit, just like with the rest of the things in this world.

Right, kinda what I figured. Was hoping I wouldn't have to pay more for the product I'm already paying for to fix someone else's mistake, but it's probably the easiest solution at this point.

Or......class action lawsuit

3 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

The problem is you like baseball.

Not always true. Many days I hate it 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10236]

45 minutes ago, Foosters said:

...and why mine's fucked up. 

I understand what they are, but I'm dealing with a situation that has me pretty confused.

I live in southern California and have had an MLB TV account for years. Only games that have ever been blacked out are the Dodgers and Angels.

Two weeks ago, I try to flip on the Astros game and get the blackout message. Try some other games, none blacked out except for the Rangers. I conclude that it thinks I'm in Texas. Try the SoCal teams, and they're still blacked out too. 

Cleared cache, signed out, uninstalled app, rebooted modem, tried app on phone and PS4 as well. Nothing works.

Called MLB TV and they tell me it's because I'm located in Austin, TX. Tells me to call my internet provider.

Called at&t and they tell me that it's not then, but it's these independent, 3rd party IP location companies that content providers rely on to inform them of where the users are located. 

Um, what 

Guy from ATT says they rely on IPLocationTool.com, or something, and when I go to that website it shows that I'm in Austin. AT&T tells me to contact these 3rd party companies and ask them to change it. Like that's even an option. Go to like a dozen of these free sites and 90% show the correct location, but there's a few showing Austin, and a few showing I'm in Redmond, WA??

So, what the fuck is happening here and what can be done?

What does this say (can clip off top line IP address to hide):  http://whatismyip.akamai.com/advanced

(Akamai handles MLB traffic)

[Foosters 17856]

3 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

What does this say (can clip off top line IP address to hide):  http://whatismyip.akamai.com/advanced

(Akamai handles MLB traffic)

Austin, TX 

[TwiceHorn 31472]

That seems bizarre.  Did you bring a modem from Austin or anything?

[immamac 42850]

That's not how any of this works, but the answer is a VPN.

 

[Zepol87 9186]

It's always DNS!!!! For real though this sounds pretty insane that it is only that one app doing that, but I also agree on always using a VPN

[Rimbo 25936]

1 hour ago, Foosters said:

Called at&t and they tell me that it's not then, but it's these independent, 3rd party IP location companies that content providers rely on to inform them of where the users are located. 

That's basically it.

They gave you the name of the company MLB is using, so you could contact them. I would also contact MLB directly and say, "I'm sorry, but your information is fucked." They're effectively denying you service that you've paid for and have a right to based on incorrect information; it's up to them to provide. You can go to other IP location services and prove to them that the IP you're at is not shown as being in Austin in those services. Be friendly, be polite; the person on the other end of the phone is not responsible for you having this problem -- and they ARE the person you need to get on your side to fix it.

Another option: Hotspot off your phone.

[Francisco 2.0 32394]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

You're going to have to pay to get any sort of quality. 

I've used PIA in the past and never had any issues. Looks like you can get a year for $40. But they also have a 30 day money back guarantee. 

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/offer/best?coupon=official-site&utm_campaign=18174528942&utm_adgroup=143585570387&keyword=private internet access&ms=gb&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwg-GjBhBnEiwAMUvNWwo-ZJsLxs3MEMe7dIFl7hj-0-200l076IPueID85692M2wzrgTtQxoCbDQQAvD_BwE

I would imagine @immamac knows his stuff here. 

 

Co-sign.  I've used PIA for 5-6 years now or so.  I can't recall the last time I paid for it, however.  They had a 3 years for $50 promotion or something like that that I used. Prior to that, I was month to month.

[MonkeyDoughnut 10236]

21 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Austin, TX 

ok... so VPN going to be quickest and easiest, but if you want to ultimately try and fix.

2nd option is to call MLB TV and try to convince them to override your location on your account, a few online posts suggest this might be something they have done for people)

If you really want to fix the IP - geolocation issue itself, start here:

https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup

see which ones of the services have incorrect geolocation and click on them to find line to correct/update

Here are links to the many of the major geolocation data players:

https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-data-correction-request#correcting-a-few-ips
https://ipdata.co/corrections.html
https://ipinfo.io/corrections
https://ipgeolocation.io/contact.html
https://www.fortiguard.com/faq/ipge
https://ip-api.com/docs/correction
 

The quick answer is that ISPs don't maintain geolocation information and it's all done by 3rd parties that websites like MLB streams contract with.  They don't always match and obviously aren't always accurate. AT&T can't change your "location" but they could give you a new IP address that is a location where you are at (online posts suggests ATT just doesn't do that as they don't see it as their problem - they offer for you to spend $150+ a year on a static IP)

[Foosters 17856]

3 hours ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

ok... so VPN going to be quickest and easiest, but if you want to ultimately try and fix.

2nd option is to call MLB TV and try to convince them to override your location on your account, a few online posts suggest this might be something they have done for people)

If you really want to fix the IP - geolocation issue itself, start here:

https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup

see which ones of the services have incorrect geolocation and click on them to find line to correct/update

Here are links to the many of the major geolocation data players:

https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-data-correction-request#correcting-a-few-ips
https://ipdata.co/corrections.html
https://ipinfo.io/corrections
https://ipgeolocation.io/contact.html
https://www.fortiguard.com/faq/ipge
https://ip-api.com/docs/correction
 

The quick answer is that ISPs don't maintain geolocation information and it's all done by 3rd parties that websites like MLB streams contract with.  They don't always match and obviously aren't always accurate. AT&T can't change your "location" but they could give you a new IP address that is a location where you are at (online posts suggests ATT just doesn't do that as they don't see it as their problem - they offer for you to spend $150+ a year on a static IP)

Thanks. That's very helpful. And thanks to everyone else. It's why I asked here. Also because when I asked my wife what she thought, she wondered aloud if it's because my cell phone number is still a Dallas area number....

[52-80 19159]

 

[elfenix 34241]

13 hours ago, Patricio Swayze said:

The problem is you like baseball.

[Davis Lane 5584]

On 6/1/2023 at 8:24 PM, Hate said:

You pretty much have to pay for anything worth a shit, just like with the rest of the things in this world.

So you're saying there's a Surly worth paying for?