IP Address assigned in wrong region

[#1]

PlusNet Technologies Ltd in Asia

...an overseas division we've not heard of?

[#2]

New Call center ????

[#3]

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@bobpullen wrote:

Thanks for the detail. I'll run it by the team that helped 'warm' the IPs and see what they make of it.

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Bob/PlusNet engineers,

Any news on this, it is clearly catching many people. I'm listed as in Columbia this morning.  It would appear the IP's were not 'warmed' enough and are considerably 'raw' on one side. I would like to get this sorted before the Euro Football starts please, it seems to be taking too long to even find out where things have gone awry and some information/feedback, rather than silence, would not go amiss.

[#4]

There is potential for this to remain an issue no matter how much heat PlusNET apply.  The 'end game' on these matters is the service supplier getting their geo-location data correct.

I have a static IP address which is clearly UK based.  This last week I found that a UK restricted Facebook page could not be accessed, which was previously OK.  The issue was brought to my attention by other UK based users.  I had to remove the geo-location restrictions so the page could be accessed from the UK.

The conclusion is therefore that some of the geo-location data / services using it are not correctly configured and that it sometimes it's use is flawed.

[#5]

I am having a similar issue with PlusNet 209.93.119 etc IPs.  I cannot access William Hill or PaddyPower even though I am in the UK!

PlusNet & William Hill are both passing the buck, but it appears as follows:

On 3rd May Maxmind (who allocate the IP Geo locations and seem to be used by WilliamHill who told me to contact them), changed the IP geo to UK.

Here lies the problem, Maxmind update their data the 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month.  Looking at the packages most companies seem to buy a monthly update - if they choose the 1st of the month, the data is out of date by the 3rd when the update happens... So they are still seeing the PlusNet IP's as USA....

Technically PlusNet seem to be a bit premature releasing such IP's into their pool of IP's when gaming companies and other IP checking websites have not updated their tools. 

This deems their IP's effectively "UNFIT FOR PURPOSE" for the end user - the customer who is caught between a rock and a hard place, with PlusNet referring to the company and the companies bouncing it back to the customer.

NOT GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM EITHER TO BE HONEST! I've got an IP that's [-Censored-] and just done me out of a winning bet with Ricciardo..... I've had this happen 2 months so far this year and to be honest, your customer retention is not looking good when the contract is up.

PLUSNET - a solution would be if you would not add these newly changed IPs into your pool until the following month after Maxmind update them, in order to give the companies chance to update their records.

[#6]

I too I have this problem since Thursday. I first spotted it when my PC's time was 8 hours out. It's because Windows was using automatic time zone setting and selecting GMT-8 hours.

I too cannot access William Hills, but I can access PaddyPower. 

I've checked with a few different sites that tell you where you are and most say "UK" but a few say "US", and normally California. So it must depend on which third-party sites use to check your location.

So today I had an online chat session with PlusNet. They said they are aware of the problem and for now they suggested I boot my router, and leave it off for at least 65 minutes. I tried that and whilst I get a new IP address (I get a new one even if I just disconnect and reconnect), it makes no difference because it's only ever the last digit that gets changed. 

But it looks like the classic case of each side blaming the other in typical fashion.

[#7]

I think that this argument would be better placed at the feet of those organisations restricting access to services based on stale geo-location data. PlusNET can publish IP address meta data until the cows come home, but unless the geo-location data resellers make it available and their consumers update it more regularly than once a month (if that often) it is all rather useless.

As I observed above, some consumers of very old static IP geo-location data still manage to screw this up - and that's with non-PlusNET addresses as well.

The focus needs to be on the money grabbing gaming and betting sites spending their ill gotten profits on more frequent data updates. I'm sure that PlusNET is not the only ISP impacted by their laziness.

I wonder if a certain SS might have some insight to industry practice here?

[#8]

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@Townman wrote:
I think that this argument would be better placed at the feet of those organisations restricting access to services based on stale geo-location data.

It's not just restrictive sites though is it. Are you saying Microsoft,Yahoo! and TV Entertainment companies don't update their information from the most reputable services out there. Surely, as you have highlighted, ISP's are aware of this issue and the impact on their customers so should delay release of IP addresses for long enough to allow the registration process to catch up with the changes. The internet is getting more GeoLocation based day by day with 'local content and advertising' the current trend. Surely the reason some companies restrict access is because of country specific laws, copyright and regulation - not money grabbing. It's the most reliable information they have without tracking everyone via GPS info.

Just how long have PlusNet given for these IP's to be 'warmed' and registered correctly?

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[#9]

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@eagle224 wrote:

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@bobpullen wrote:

Thanks for the detail. I'll run it by the team that helped 'warm' the IPs and see what they make of it.

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Bob/PlusNet engineers,

Any news on this...

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Despite the silence, we're keeping close tabs on this thread and we're taking steps to get the various sites etc. to update their geo-location databases. Feel free to also get in touch with the owners of any sites you're having difficulties accessing (assuming you can of course). More the merrier

For reference, the full range these latest IPs are from is 209.93.0.0/16 and it belongs entirely to Plusnet.

@SuzieT wrote:
PlusNet & William Hill are both passing the buck...@SuzieT

We're in touch with William Hill and I expect the issue to be resolved before too long. Apologies for the hassle.

@SuzieT wrote:
T - a solution would be if you would not add these newly changed IPs into your pool until the following month after Maxmind update them, in order to give the companies chance to update their records.

Makes sense. Although as far as I know, Maxmind updated their databases back in April

@eagle224 wrote:

Just how long have PlusNet given for these IP's to be 'warmed' and registered correctly?

We've had them for months and most of what needs to be done was done some time ago. One of the geo-location providers we believed to be sorted is still seeing certain IP's from the range as non-UK though. We're trying to get that fixed.

Some of the other sites (notably William Hill) we should have had sorted before now.

As we've seen with some of the previous ARIN IP ranges, there *will* be some residual issues that affect some of the smaller websites/services. Needless to say, it's not practical for us to test access to every website in existence prior to seeding these IP's. Where issues are identified though, we will do our best to correct the situation.

If any new issues crop up with the 209.93 IP's then do shout up. We appreciate the examples that have already been reported in this thread.

[#10]

I still cannot access William Hill or Paddy Power. Have had previous issues earlier in year with National Lottery, Ebay and You Tube. Basically location dependent sites that have restrictions on USA activity.

Bob, here is the geo screengrab showing the IP change date of 3 May I was referring to.

[#11]

I also have this problem, some whoami sites show my IP address as London, others show it as LA, California. 

I have tried repeated attempts to reboot router to get a UK address without success.  I tried Plusnet live chat, who repeatedly told me to reboot the router, or buy a static IP address.  I don't want a static IP address, I want a dynamic one so I can change it when I like.  She was very unhelpful on live chat, disappointing.

The sites I am having problems with so far are: 

William Hill, Paddy Power, Bingo Mega, Lucky Pants Bingo, Totesport.com and Sky Go (although can access that eventually with a bit of brute force).

[#12]

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@SuzieT wrote:

Bob, here is the geo screengrab showing the IP change date of 3 May I was referring to.

I think that's just a note advising when the database was last updated, I'm not sure it's actually related to the IP address you're looking up.

e.g. I have had my static IP address for over a decade and it shows this:

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@Davey7 wrote:
Bingo Mega, Lucky Pants Bingo, Totesport.com and Sky Go (although can access that eventually with a bit of brute force).

These ones are new to me. Can I ask how the problem manifests itself for each site? i.e. what are you trying to do when you encounter problems and what error messages (if any) are returned?

[#13]

When I try to access William Hill's site, I get a message that blocks the entire site which says "We have detected that you are currently located in the USA" and that's as far as I can get.

For PaddyPower, I can look at the site, but there's a message that says "Restricted Territory Message" and then says for legal reasons they cannot accept bets from the USA.

TripAdvisor also thinks I'm in the US, and so does Cunard. So it's not just the betting sites that this problem is affecting.

[#14]

For the Lucky Pants Bingo website as soon as you click on Register you get "Country Error

Sorry…

Unfortunately we are unable to accept players from your country"

https://www.luckypantsbingo.com/country-error

For Sainsbury's Entertainment (TV/Movies) https://movies.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk you get redirected to https://movies.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/outofregion

Bingo Mega when you try to join you get:

You are attempting to connect from United States

Unfortunately your State Authorities prohibit access to this site. If you are not in the above listed location and believe you are seeing this message in error please contact our support at
http://www.bingoentertainment.net/live-support/

[#15]

BingoMega - when I try to login get error "Your State authorities forbid you to access this site. "

Luckypantsbingo - when I try to login get error "Sorry…Unfortunately we are unable to accept players from your country"

Totesport.com - When I press the login button, nothing happens at all (no error).  Have been thru this with their live help, no solution offered but I expect it is probably caused by this IP address issue.

Sky.go - After logging in and trying to watch something get the following on the screen "Sky Go is only available to users connecting from the UK or Republic of Ireland, unfortunately we cannot confirm that you are within these territories at the moment.  Please retry later."    I can then select another channel and watch TV successfully.