[tor-talk] Strange behaviour from Gmail's IP to location service.

Matthew pumpkin at cotse.net
Tue Mar 1 11:12:05 UTC 2011


  In Gmail, one can go to the bottom of the inbox, select details, and see 
account activity such as IPs that are logged in and IPs that were recently 
logged in.  Gmail often - but not always - attempts to connect the IP to a 
location like, for example, www.ip2location.com.

However, while www.ip2location provides the same location information as 
from http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/, Gmail often provides rather strange 
location data. when using certain USA exit nodes.

For example:

Freeside (76.10.214.53 - New York) identified by Gmail as United States 
(CA) (76.10.214.53)

Ennui (208.75.57.100 - San Francisco) identified by Gmail as United States 
(WA) (208.75.57.100)

Virek (76.10.214.89 - New York) identified by Gmail as United States (CA) 
(76.10.214.89)

Fejk2 (204.152.222.140 - Nevada) identified by Gmail as China 
(204.152.222.140)

If you select some USA exit nodes from http://torstatus.blutmagie.de/ and 
check with Gmail you will find other examples.

Not all exit nodes are inaccurate but the majority are.

Why?
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