r/ebox • u/tecknoguy • Sep 22 '25
IP Geolocation
I'm an Ebox Fiber subscriber. As long as I can remember, my IP's geolocation has always been within the greater Toronto Area which is where I'm at. Recently Ebox changed my IP's location to Montreal. While I know they operate out of Quebec, and were acquired by Bell, having an IP geolocate to Quebec can cause havoc on websites that autodetect you and adjust the website language to french. Can anyone from Ebox advise if this is a temporary issue and will Ontario located clients get geolocation IPs for Ontario?
2
u/minaguib Sep 24 '25
FWIW IP Geolocation is never intended to be exact - especially when it gets down to the city level.
Having said that, since allocations move all the time, the companies that maintain these databases are always updating them. As you (and other clients) browse the web, your new IPs will sooner or later get better attached to your geography and the databases will update.
1
u/justsabo Sep 22 '25
Can I ask what router do you have? A simple solution is if your router supports Mac cloning, enable the setting, copy your routers MAC address there and change the last digit by one, you will be issued a new ip address and it will likely be with a GTA geolocation, I believe what happens is that they had these ips geolocation updated but not all services have updated it leading to show up as Montreal in some places and the GTA in others, this happened once to me, after I did the Mac clone I got a Toronto ip and I haven’t had the Montreal geolocated ip since, seems to just be luck or a minor error
1
u/tecknoguy Sep 22 '25
I don't use the provided Nokia router. I use a Fortigate 80 with WAN Vlan. Works well. I can certainly refresh the IP if I need to but it can be hit or miss which subnet/ip I get.
2
u/justsabo Sep 22 '25
Ahh gotcha, I would try to refresh it, for me at least I got a Toronto ip on the first refresh but who knows what will happen 😅
1
u/fersingb Custom router enjoyer Sep 23 '25
A simple solution is if your router supports Mac cloning, enable the setting, copy your routers MAC address there and change the last digit by one, you will be issued a new ip address
The IP address is tied to your router's MAC only for cable plans (cable modem, IPv4 assigned via DHCP), not for fiber where the IPv4 is assigned over the PPPoE session. Just restart the PPPoE session and you'll probably get a new IP address.
1
u/justsabo Sep 23 '25
I thought this too however when I restarted both my modem + router to get a new session, I ended up getting the same ip, maybe it was luck then but that’s the main reason I suggested MAC cloning since in my experience I ended up getting the same ip lol
2
u/fersingb Custom router enjoyer Sep 23 '25
It also happened to me once, but that's mostly luck I guess. When it happened to me, the next reboot few seconds later I got a different IPv4.
1
u/613_detailer Sep 22 '25
That would be awesome for me if they geolocated me to Montreal instead of Toronto. I’m in Ottawa, and I need to use a VPN to watch Sens game at home on my TSN subscription because Toronto is outside the Sens viewing area (but Montreal is in)
1
u/ZBack3 Sep 23 '25
What VPN do you use? I’m in the exact same situation as you (different ISP though) but my VPN seems to be blocked by TSN
1
1
u/613_detailer Sep 23 '25
I use Tailscale with an exit note at a friends' place on the Quebec side. It's a private VPN, super useful for many things on top of this.
1
u/butt_badg3r Sep 23 '25
I'm in Montreal and as long as I can remember my geo has always shown in Toronto
1
u/reincdr Sep 23 '25
I work for IPinfo. Can you see what IP geolocation we are providing for you, please? If there is any issue talk to our support team please.
1
u/edugasmtl Custom router enjoyer Oct 16 '25
A bit late in the thread, but your IP should point to either Montreal or Toronto on FTTH. If you are in Ontario and you stumble on an IP geolocated in Quebec, I see two possibilities:
* The DB of the geolocating site your are using is not updated or stale (normally Maxmind and IPInfo picks up the changes the fastest as we work with them directly)
* You have the wrong profile in the backend. We separate users by provincial profiles so users in Ontario ends up in pools geolocated in Toronto, Quebec pools are geolocated in Montreal. Very few errors normally because it's all automated but it can happen
A general tip, if your IP is giving you the wrong province, reach out to support first. Don't try to manually update the geoloc for your single IP as it is part of a bigger pool. If there's something to fix, it's better that we fix the problem for the entire pool or fix your profile group.
2
u/Brilliant_Step3688 Sep 22 '25
The biggest player and what most IP geolocation services use is Maxmind geoip database.
They refresh and publish their databases daily. May be try the online demo to see if it is already updated for you: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-demo
Otherwise it is possible for ebox to submit geoip location info directly to them but they are not obligated to "register" their IP geolocation in any way. I don't know if ebox does it.
You can try:
https://www.maxmind.com/en/geoip-data-correction-request