Windows 10: Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router

Discus and support Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router in Windows 10 Network and Sharing to solve the problem; Hello! I have Windows 10 PC and Windows 7 PC connected to router via cable and Windows 7 notebook and smartphones connected to same router via WiFi.... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Network and Sharing' started by serb1982, Dec 17, 2018.

  1. serb1982 Win User

    Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router


    Hello!

    I have Windows 10 PC and Windows 7 PC connected to router via cable and Windows 7 notebook and smartphones connected to same router via WiFi. With wifi, the localtion is correct. With wired connection, the location is totally wrong. The router is Zyxel Keenetic Lite III. How to fix the problem with wired connection?

    :)
     
    serb1982, Dec 17, 2018
    #1
  2. nigeldcat Win User

    Location totally wrong on wifi but OK on wired network connection using same router

    I happen to live in the NW (PST) and my laptop suddenly changed to Mountain time (MST). After a little digging I discovered that the Geolocation services had my location as somewhere outside of Denver which is over 1200 miles away. Since Windows 10 has
    the option to sets the time zone based on your location it was switching me to mountain zone. I can force it to Pacific time zone for now but wanted location services to work so I did some digging.

    1. With WiFi off and on a network connection through the same router, the location is correct. I checked my IP location and it is in the correct basic area.

    2. With Wifi on but connected to router via Wifi and LAN cable, back to Denver Colorado.

    3. With Wifi on but not connected to any wireless hotspot still in Denver Colorado.

    4. With WiFi on and using my phone as a hotspot the location still is Colorado. My phone does show me in the correct location.

    5. Switching Wifi off in 2-4 above puts me back in the NW.

    6. Well I happen to have several other Windows 10 PC's and they all do the same thing. With a wired connection, location is fine, but with wireless connection, they all show up outside of Denver in the same location.

    7. I have tried on my Amazon Kindle and the location is fine for that device.

    8. I cleared location history on my device and online and still no change to the behavior.

    This just recently started with latest update. I am pretty sure it was not always wrong as I vaguely remember Cortana having news and weather for my area, but now she is showing me Denver news and weather.

    The one thing I have not tried yet is to go to another location and try it and see if I end up in same location as I am wondering if it is picking up a signal from a neighbors Wifi as my understanding is that for Wifi location you do not have to be connected.

    Any thoughts on how to fix this while at home other than turning off Wifi?
     
    nigeldcat, Dec 17, 2018
    #2
  3. GlennHMB Win User
    Location totally wrong on wifi but OK on wired network connection using same router

    I have the same issue. I'm physically in Northern California, but Windows 10 says my laptop is in the Netherlands (when WiFi is enabled at home)! Maybe we should have a contest re: most wrong location Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router :)

    I did verify that location is fine with WiFi at another location (a coffee shop a few miles away). And like nigeldcat, all is also fine when I disable WiFi at home (and use a wired network connection).

    It's of course annoying for the feature reasons mentioned.

    It's also annoying as I called Microsoft support twice re: the issue. On the last call, I was escalated to a supervisor who *insisted* that it had to be an issue with my ISP. I checked this after the call, but the public IP address assigned seems perfectly
    reasonable (i.e. various location services associate it to cities all within 15 miles of my actual location).

    I'd poked around a bit before calling support, and specifically asked about the possibility of the Microsoft WiFi location mechanism being wrong. He claimed to understand what I was saying, but again insisted that it was my ISP. Geez...

    Any help, corrections or theories appreciated.
     
    GlennHMB, Dec 17, 2018
    #3
  4. GlennHMB Win User

    Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router

    Location totally wrong on wifi but OK on wired network connection using same router

    Tried some experiments last night to try and narrow this down. No luck, but here's what I did in case it sparks some ideas.

    Connected my Windows 10 laptop directly to the cable modem's Ethernet port which gave me (wired) Internet access. Verified that with WiFi *on* (although in this case not used for Internet access) the Microsoft location service still claimed my machine was
    in the Netherlands (remember I'm in California). And with WiFi off, everything was good/accurate.

    So going back to the "WiFi on" case for debugging, I shut down all the wireless networks that I could find (e.g. my own WiFi router, DirecTV wireless adapter, Roku box). I used the "netsh" command to see what wireless networks were visible to my laptop,
    and even put block rules for a few APs that belong to my neighbors (since I couldn't very well shut those off). Alas, though, none of this helped.

    Bottom line is that, even though I don't think there were any wireless networks visible to my system (except for a neighbor's AP which I blocked w/netsh), as long as WiFi was enabled on my laptop I got the bogus location. (But remember, if I'm using this
    same WiFi a few miles away at a local coffee shop all is well.)

    Really not having any luck here, and I'm out of ideas since I really don't have any visibility into how the Microsoft location service really works (e.g. what information is being sent from my machine?). Argh.
     
    GlennHMB, Dec 17, 2018
    #4
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Location totally wrong on wired network connection but OK on wifi using same router

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