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My current IP address is linked to a GPS location 40 km from my location. I found the same GPS coordinates using both iptrackeronline and maxmind. If this means that there is a hacker on my line, this may mean that he sees this too. What am I to do if I have a hacker on my line?

Jean-Victor Côté
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    IP localization is approximated. E.g., if you're in London it might just point to the center of London which could coincidentally be close to the street you live in. – Arminius Jul 15 '17 at 14:45
  • If there's a "hacker on your line" (which is very broad and meaningless, but let's assume you're talking about an attacker being able to intercept traffic from your network connection) you have worse things to worry about. – André Borie Jul 15 '17 at 21:49
  • André Borie, could you tell me how to ascertain that nobody is intercepting my Internet communications? – Jean-Victor Côté Jul 17 '17 at 00:13
  • @Jean-VictorCôté It's not really possible for an end-user like yourself to be confident that nobody is intercepting your communications (and in fact, your ISP or other companies may systematically scan your traffic). The best solution is to understand and use safe (encrypted) browsing habits. Without a more specific threat it's hard to be more specific about how to keep yourself safe. – David Jul 17 '17 at 01:42
  • @David Thanks. The Web is becoming a minefield, it seems. – Jean-Victor Côté Jul 17 '17 at 01:50
  • I'm confused, what is the issue you are concerned about? That your IP has a geo location so close to your house? What is registered at that address? How does any of the rest of your question relate to the geo-location issue? – schroeder Jul 17 '17 at 05:53
  • Please align the content and the title of your question. – dan Jul 17 '17 at 05:57
  • @Jean-VictorCôté even with this new title, it is not clear what your question is. What is the unexpected thing that you think indicates that there might be a hacker? – schroeder Jul 17 '17 at 15:21
  • I am using a DNS server. This might be what throws the geo location off. Just to be on the safe side, I tried to change my IPV6 address from fixed to random. But it reverts to fixed by itself... – Jean-Victor Côté Jul 20 '17 at 12:44
  • My answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/1614592/when-i-do-a-geoip-lookup-why-does-the-nearby-capital-city-come-up-instead/1614593#1614593 – Kind Contributor Jan 03 '21 at 06:48

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Getting the location from the IP address is simply done by a database lookup and different providers might use the same database or at least similar sources. This explains why you find the same physical location with different providers.

The accuracy and precision of the entries within the database varies widely. To cite from whatsmyipaddress.com: How accurate is IP GeoLocation?:

  • Accuracy rates on naming the city from an IP address vary between 50%-80%.
  • Determining the nation of an Internet user is 95%-99% percent accurate, for reasons that have to do with how IP addresses are allocated and registered.
  • Determining the physical location of the user, down to a city or ZIP code, is trickier and less accurate.
dan
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Steffen Ullrich
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It doesn't mean that at all. Geolocation of IP addresses is usually not precise. This can happen for a variety of reasons, e.g. the last person that had that address was located near there. Or it could be that location is the one that your ISP used to register a particular block of IP addresses.

It's nothing to worry about.

Swashbuckler
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