ISP problem

[#1]

The National Lottery website has just decided that I Iive outside of the UK. I live in West Sussex. Here is the message:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

IMPORTANT LOCATION NOTIFICATION
It looks like you're outside the UK and Isle of Man
So unfortunately you will not be able to access your account at the moment.

To play UK National Lottery games online, you must be a resident of the UK or Isle of Man at all times. You must also be physically located in the UK or Isle of Man when buying a ticket or when setting up or amending a Direct Debit account.Our location software recognises Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) that are used by UK-based Internet Service Providers (ISPs). If your ISP has not registered your IP address as being situated in the UK or Isle of Man, we must assume that you are located outside this region.

Please contact your ISP and ask them to update the registration of your IP address (it may take a few weeks for the changes to take effect).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is a new problem as the website has been working perfecty well for years.

Help please!

[#2]

@almenzies Despite the message you have posted, it is the National Lottery that has got its location data messed up.

Have you recently disconnected your computer from the internet, or had a re-sync that has changed your IP address?

[#3]

Hi

I have done nothing. I bought a ticket yesterday, and now I can't get into the website. It's a mystery.

I'll see if I can get any sense out of them. 

Thanks for your help.

al

[#4 · Accepted solution]

OK, you may not have done anything, but something has obviously happened to change your public IP address, as National Lottery wouldn't suddenly decide you had emigrated.

My suspicion is that your router has rebooted, probably overnight or while you were away from your machine, and picked up an IP which NL is erroneously flagging as not a UK one - it happens unfortunately as they, or the IP location service they use, are not brilliant at maintaining their records.

You will be lucky to get sense out of them, To be honest, the easiest solution may be to turn your router off overnight, and see if it picks up an IP they recognise as being in the UK when you restart it in the morning - but no guarantees given, as IP allocation is now done from small 'local' pools, which may mean you still get one from the same range.

[#5]

A small miracle has happened down here on the south coast. West Sussex seems to have been dragged back from somewhere in the Atlantic, and reattached to the mainland. The bad news is that I am not a multi-millionaire, but I wasn't before this happened so musn't grumble.

Nice cat, by the way. And thanks again.

al

[#6]

Glad you got it sorted. Sorry you didn't win the jackpot, but one day...😀

Funny how 'gambling' sites seem to be experts at not getting the correct geo-location for a lot of people.

Sadly, 'Grumpy' isn't my cat, but thanks.

[#7]

Yep GeoIP is not perfect, sounds like you got disconnected and assigned another through PlusNet where the site was rejecting you.

Depending on the IP you had it may have been mistaking you being in a different country.

[#8]

Hello @almenzies I'm glad your problem has been solved. Did it stay solved or has your location wandered away again?

I have been having this problem on  and off for a few weeks now. Every time I sign in to eBay I trigger a warning that someone has signed in using my credentials from Edinburgh or Norwich, Eastbourne or Rye etc. At the moment they think I'm in Inverness (I'm not: I'm in the north of England) Who knows: will they tell me next time that I'm at a garden party near Reading?

Bing search does the same. If I use the map search it zooms over to where it thinks I am - which is invariably where eBay thinks I am too. Yet through all this, Google seems to know exactly where I really am and I never volunteer my location information to anybody. Oh: and my bank contacted me the other day because of a similarly suspicious sign in.

So it's not just the National Lottery. It's eBay, my bank, Bing and more. And since they all seem to agree that I'm in the same wrong place I suspect it must be something to do with the broadband network rather than those individual companies.

Any ideas?

[#9]

Good morning.

I am happy to report that West Sussex has remained tethered to the south coast, although I am still not a millionaire alas. I'm not sure I can be much help, but the techie solution of switching everything off, making a cup of tea, then switching everything back on again is always a good thing to try, although you may prefer coffee.

Good luck!

al