Paranoid Android?

December 19, 2010 9:01 PM

How accurate are the IP locations in Gmail's Activity Information tables? My account says it was accessed in the state next to where I live (according to the IP). Internet tubes thing or did someone else access my account?
posted by ArcAm to Computers & Internet (13 answers total)

first thing to check - does your IP show as coming out of your state/town? did you access the account through a VPN or anything? my husband uses a VPN that shows our IP as many, many states away. freaked me out until i realized what was going on.
posted by nadawi at 9:08 PM on December 19, 2010

Response by poster: My current IP location is correct. Nope, no VPN access.

Creepy, huh?
posted by ArcAm at 9:11 PM on December 19, 2010

That sounds like someone accessed your account, yeah.
posted by bardophile at 9:15 PM on December 19, 2010

I'd change the password if I were in your position.
posted by bardophile at 9:16 PM on December 19, 2010

Not necessarily - for example, google always gets my state wrong. Also, my state is often wrong when I access my account from my mobile phone while travelling.

No matter what you do, just go ahead and change your password right now. Better safe than sorry.

In the future, just take regular note of the ip addresses you see when you sign into your accounts, and you'll have a better idea of the fishy ones.
posted by lesli212 at 9:16 PM on December 19, 2010

Response by poster: Yes, I changed it!
posted by ArcAm at 9:21 PM on December 19, 2010

My phone access always comes in saying Illinois when I most definitely in KY, so I think it's just your tubes man.
posted by deezil at 10:19 PM on December 19, 2010

My phone access shows up as coming from Georgia. I'm in NJ.
posted by ellenaim at 2:48 AM on December 20, 2010

if its that close, more than likely just either your ISP has a node in that state, or if you accessed from your phone, it has a node in that location.

Do a whois or Domain Dossier from centralops.net and see if it comes back to something specific.
posted by fozzie33 at 6:18 AM on December 20, 2010

Yeah, my ISP shows me 100 miles away, so Google gives me local ads for stores there sometimes.

Here's something you can try. Open a command prompt, and enter
tracert google.com

You'll see where your packets are going, and it may help you make sense of this.
posted by theora55 at 6:55 AM on December 20, 2010

also, make sure the computer(s) you check gmail on dont have some virus/spyware proxy running.
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 7:29 AM on December 20, 2010

Gmail locations are as accurate as the ISP assigning the IP address allows them to be. Depending on your provider and where your DHCP server is, you'll get different IPs. I've gotten IPs all over the country when I connect to gmail from home, work, via phone, etc all from the same town.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:56 AM on December 20, 2010

I've got a personal gmail account and a google apps account. I've noticed that occasionally my IP is way out of state and that will be true of both accounts. So, I wouldn't be too concerned, keeping in mind that it's never bad to change your passwords.
posted by lyam at 12:33 PM on December 21, 2010