Any search engine gives results for UK

[FlyboyLDB]

No matter what search engine I use - it comes up with search results as if this pc was in the UK. I have tried MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc. In fact, when I type in

http://www.google.com

on this end user's computer (in the address bar) - it will immed go to

http://www.google.co.uk

I have checked all the regional settings, scanned for viruses and spyware - nothing. The web pages displays normally - just any searching. Any ideas? Thanks

 

[franklin97355]

There is a setting in the regonal settings that will tell programs what country you are in. you might try resetting that.

The answer is "42"

 

[evilforces]

Do you have any proxy settings for accessing the internet?

 

[FlyboyLDB]

For Frank - Yes, as I posted, I did check the regional settings and all is set to US, time zone is set to eastern, language US. No viruses or spyware. Got rid of all temp files in all folders. MS XP Pro -with all updates/service packs.

No proxy.

I know that these search engines will use one's IP address to determine geo location and automatically redirect to the appropriate local - but we are in the United States - no reason to redirect to the UK - it worked fine up until a few weeks ago.

 

[wardy66]

Do yuo know if some network changes were done? For example, are you at work when this happens?

My company comes up as France when I VPN in from Australia. Who knows what evil routes the network people have in place ...

 

[FlyboyLDB]

Yes, this is at work. The ISP is USLEC. Never had this issue before. Nothing has changed on our end - firewall, fileserver & workstations all the same. I am now thinking that somehow their IPs (our public IP) is being interperted as a UK IP address by the search engines. But I don't know how to resolve - contact the ISP and they say it's not them - contact every search engine company? My end users are upset and I don't know where to go to get this one resolved.

 

[franklin97355]

You might try contacting ONE of the search engine companies and see how your IP is resolving. Then if it is resolving as UK you would know.

The answer is "42"

 

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

contact the ISP and they say it's not them

Are you saying you have contacted your ISP, or you imagine that if you do, they will deny it's them?

If the latter, I would get onto them anyway - because if you don't try, you won't know.

Hope this helps,
Dan

[tt]Dan's Page [blue]@[/blue] Code Couch

http://www.codecouch.com/dan/

[/tt]

 

[smah]

I too think there is probably something wrong with the way your public IP adress or domain name (if applicable) is resolving. Perhaps some of the IP lookup tools here will point you in the right direction

http://www.dnsstuff.com/

 

[FlyboyLDB]

Yes, I contacted the ISP (USLEC) and they deny that there is anything they could/can do. They state that it is with how the search engines subscribe to a service that translates location information based on IP addresses alone. Hmm - but no one can tell me where or who all these search engines subscribe to. It is such a hassle. Mean while, the end users just get frustrated with results from the UK.

 

[smah]

There are several databases that compare IP address blocks to Physical location. Googling for GeoIP (one of the most common) might turn up something interesting.

 

[smah]

Here's one such interesting result. Use the IP lookup tool on the right

http://www.hostip.info/index.html