On-going Complaint - IP different location

[Lette]

Early February, I noticed after trying to log into a few online accounts and TV services was showing an incorrect location.  After wasting my time, spending all day, speaking to Virgin Media customer services & technical support I was unable to get the problem fixed, reason being, most of the people I had spoken too had no clue of what I was talking about, half of them did not even know what a WAN was. The very last person I spoke too, did understand what I was talking about but was unable to fix the problem and told me the only way to get the issue fixed was to make a complaint, so below is what I first wrote, through the complaints system.

I noticed that our WAN IP had changed to Edinburgh, which is 400 miles from our location. I logged into the HUB 5 and checked the Default gateway and it was 92.238.80.1 which is Scotland.  I call customer service and ended up speaking all day to about 11 people in different departments most did not have a clue of what I was talking about, others tried to tell me the issue was mine, not VM. I have had computers over 30 years and cable broadband over 20 years, so I know what I'm talking about. This is affecting my TV and many other online accounts because of the current WAN IP assigned. I was told by the last person I spoke to that the only way to get this fixed is to make a complaint, when really all I need to do is speak to someone in the UK network team tech department, which you cannot do. This must be a one off because I couldn't find anyone who has had this problem before and I have searched online for hours. Please can you pass this problem onto the network team, so that they can change my Default gateway in the HUB 5 back to a local one, so I can obtain a local WAN IP or provide me with a telephone number to call the UK Networking team.

I received a reply from Virgin Media Complaints, see below the two important paragraphs from Virgin Media Com : 

We have thoroughly investigated your complaint and confirmed that your concerns are legitimate. We identified an error in our network configuration that resulted in your WAN IP being assigned to Edinburgh instead of your local area. Rest assured, we can take immediate action to rectify this issue. Your HUB 5's default gateway is supposed to be reconfigured to a local one, ensuring you receive a localized WAN IP address aligned with your geographical location. This change should resolve the issues you were experiencing with your TV and other online accounts, so to make any technical changes we suggest you call us or even chat with us.

We have implemented additional measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future. We acknowledge your extensive experience with computers and cable broadband and apologize for any suggestion that the issue originated from your end. We value your expertise and appreciate you bringing this matter forward. We understand your frustration with reaching the appropriate support team. We are continuously working to improve our customer service structure and ensure efficient resolution of inquiries.

Well the problem was not resolved, as they stated, I reset the HUB 5 back to factory default and switched off for 10 minutes, but still it had the default gateway for Scotland.  So of course I wrote back to them again, this is my response to them, below : 

Dear Virgin Media Team,

With reference to my email below and your reply, I am very disappointed that this issue have not been resolved by yourselves and that the problem still remains with my WAN IP location.

You replied to my email below and mentioned that you acknowledge the problem is legit (highlighted below for your ref below) and that you identified the error was in your configurations and that you (can take immediate action to rectify this issue) .  This issue is still not fixed.  I have reset the HUB back to default, turned it off for about 5 minutes and it is still saying location Edinburgh, Scotland.  So the default gateway have not been changed.  Is this issue just isolated to me or is it for the whole of Devon?

In my original complaint below, I asked you to provide me with a contact number for the Virgin Media UK Networking Team, however, you only provided the usual customer service number in your reply.  I called this number and spoke to them, asking them to put me through to complaints, which they did, but this was in a foreign call centre who had no idea of what the technical issue was or how to help and was totally unhelpful and a waste of my time, again.

My complaint have not been resolved and the fact that you stated that it was fixed immediately is untrue, as the issue remains for me.

I received the following response from Virgin Media complaints, as follows : 

We have a little update on your complaint with us. We didn’t want to delay things, so we’ve gone ahead and looked into a resolution for you.

Here’s a quick recap

We’ve looked into it and here’s what we found:
We are writing to let you know that we have received your complaint regarding the recent problems you have been experiencing. We are sorry that you are not happy with the service you have received from us. You can be confident that we will do everything we can to ensure that it is put right. It is a pleasure to assist a loyal customer of your stature. I understand that your concern was in regards to the fault you have been experiencing while using our services and its impact on your day to day activities. I do understand your apprehension on this and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. I have checked your account and there are no area faults or issues with your account at the moment. I would be more than happy to assist you with the same, but unfortunately, I would not be able to do that over the email. Therefore, I would request you to get in touch with our Technical team, who would be able to go ahead and help you with the same. Kindly give us a call to the given number so that we can do the needful and assist you better. Also, we are working on our interfaces to make it customer friendly.

Well, I don't know what all that waffle was about, it certainly wasn't anything to do with my WAN IP being fixed and this why Virgin Media needs to sort out their Customer Services issues.  It is obvious that these call centres abroad that Virgin use are simply following a scripts and they cannot fix the problem from there, as they are limited to only being able to reboot the HUB.  I am seriously frustrated with the back and forth, and the issue not getting to the right people.

The last couple of years now Virgin Media have really gone downhill, their customer services is total sham, which is a shame.

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

[jpeg1]

Virginmedia do not assign a geographic location to your WAN IP address. Why did think they do? 

[legacy1]

VM doing subnet shuffling and forgot to update the geographic location of the subnet.

So what problems are you having? Clearly you can access the internet.

If needed use modem mode to get a new IP in another subnet if your not happy

[Lette]

Hi, NOT Alessandro, of course ISP assign a location IP, it's set by the default gateway on the HUB which is assigned by Virgin Media Network Team.  If you read my thread above you will see that they acknowledged their error but it still haven't been fixed.

"We have thoroughly investigated your complaint and confirmed that your concerns are legitimate. We identified an error in our network configuration that resulted in your WAN IP being assigned to Edinburgh instead of your local area".

[Lette]

This wont work because the Default gateway and it was 92.238.80.1 which is Scotland. 

The only people who can change the default gateway are the Virgin Media Network Team, who are impossible to contact through VM Customer Services or Technical Support and this is why I have posted here in the Forum.

[IPFreely]

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@Lette wrote:

Early February, I noticed after trying to log into a few online accounts and TV services was showing an incorrect location.  After wasting my time, spending all day, speaking to Virgin Media customer services & technical support I was unable to get the problem fixed, reason being, most of the people I had spoken too had no clue of what I was talking about, half of them did not even know what a WAN was. The very last person I spoke too, did understand what I was talking about but was unable to fix the problem and told me the only way to get the issue fixed was to make a complaint, so below is what I first wrote, through the complaints system.

I noticed that our WAN IP had changed to Edinburgh, which is 400 miles from our location. I logged into the HUB 5 and checked the Default gateway and it was 92.238.80.1 which is Scotland.  I call customer service and ended up speaking all day to about 11 people in different departments most did not have a clue of what I was talking about, others tried to tell me the issue was mine, not VM. I have had computers over 30 years and cable broadband over 20 years, so I know what I'm talking about. This is affecting my TV and many other online accounts because of the current WAN IP assigned. I was told by the last person I spoke to that the only way to get this fixed is to make a complaint, when really all I need to do is speak to someone in the UK network team tech department, which you cannot do. This must be a one off because I couldn't find anyone who has had this problem before and I have searched online for hours. Please can you pass this problem onto the network team, so that they can change my Default gateway in the HUB 5 back to a local one, so I can obtain a local WAN IP or provide me with a telephone number to call the UK Networking team.

---

You are getting a 'local WAN IP':

Name: newt-38-b2-v4wan-169734-gw.vm11.cable.virginm.net
Address: 92.238.80.1

newt = Newton Abbot.

Geolocation isn't something where Virgin Media dictate IP address locations, companies have their own databases: https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup

The networking team don't deal with IP address allocation. Your default gateway is correct else you wouldn't be online at all.

[Client62]

Provided the IP appears to be a UK ISP it is hard to understand the technical concern.

When with PlusNET our location was Sheffield, but we are Colchester it made not a jot of difference.

[Cardiffman282]

I'm guessing it's to do with the geolocation functionality of certain social media / dating apps and websites... 

[jpeg1]

Google will always know where you are. 

[IPFreely]

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@Lette wrote:

Hi, NOT Alessandro, of course ISP assign a location IP, it's set by the default gateway on the HUB which is assigned by Virgin Media Network Team.  If you read my thread above you will see that they acknowledged their error but it still haven't been fixed.

"We have thoroughly investigated your complaint and confirmed that your concerns are legitimate. We identified an error in our network configuration that resulted in your WAN IP being assigned to Edinburgh instead of your local area".

---

Okay bit more time.

ISPs do not assign 'a location IP'. They assign IP addresses that are usually nothing to do with location. Most ISPs in the UK don't care where the customer is, they get an address from a big, nationwide pool.

Virgin Media are different in that they have IP ranges assigned to routers on their network. Customers get an address from the range assigned to that router. You connect to Newton Abbot 38, you received an IP address from Newton Abbot 38. The address is nothing to do with your location. Whether you were in Devon or Denmark it doesn't matter as long as it's properly routed, which that is:

14 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms exe2-core-2a-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.254.84.242]
15 19 ms 17 ms 18 ms newt-38-b2-v4wan-169734-gw.vm11.cable.virginm.net [92.238.80.1]

There is nothing in the IP address database mentioning Edinburgh or Scotland. https://www.whois.com/whois/92.238.80.1

The response you received to your complaint is utter nonsense.