boxst

Hello

How on earth does the 'Current Location' work on Googlemaps on my Touch? I understand how it works with my Blackberry (triangulation of masts) and obviously on the iPhone it has GPS.

But it works in my house using my wireless connection! That is just freaky...

Steve

JackClark

SKYHOOK Wireless: Skyhook in Action > Apple

boxst

That is interesting. I still don't see how it works though. It is MY private Wi-Fi from my router connected to ADSL, not a public access point.

Steve

bob269

Out of interest how do you tell google maps to find where you currently are ?

boxst

If you are using a mobile device there is a 'My Location' option (or button on the bottom left of an iPhone/Touch).

Steve

RoadrunnerV2

When your touch is accessing google maps it is using your public IP address assigned to your router

boxst

Yeees .... but I was assuming that linking my public (static as it happens) IP address to my physical address wasn't so easy. If it is, I am concerned.

Steve

JackClark

It uses the mac address of the router not the ip address. If it's deadly accurate then it's likely someone has registered your router.

SKYHOOK Wireless: How It Works > Submit Wi-Fi AP

RoadrunnerV2

Just read up on Skyhook. Instead of locating you by the Internet, it looks like they can easily locate you via wireless based on how accurate their database is by performing local scans. Impressive

SKYHOOK Wireless: How It Works > Wi-Fi Positioning

RoadrunnerV2

Beat me to it but with more info It could be one of his neighbours has registered their AP. Because it would appear the touch will perform a local wireless scan as well to see if it can match up the local AP's against their database.

boxst

Mmmm. It is deadly accurate. There are no other wireless points in range, the MAC of the router is a spoofed one from the BE* router I'm supposed to be using. I doubt that the drive-by vans would pick up a signal this far from the road (although possible).

Quite impressive if somewhat scary stuff.

Steve

Ved

AFAIK it's done on signal strength against broadcasting WIFI. Works on the same way as triangulation on GSM masts.