Technology Services

Mediacom Internet Users

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by

nsonsteb

At my home, I use Mediacom as my Internet Service Provider.

In short: Mediacom has changed their IP address range, which makes Google think you are from Spain and puts your search results in Spanish. I have contacted Google and they are making the appropriate fix.

Long version:

Recently, while at home, I would use Google’s services such as Google search, Google Reader, etc, and Google would put my text in Spanish. At first I thought my account was hacked, which had me worried, so I changed my password to something a bit more secure. After changing my password, I still noticed that I was being redirected to the (google.es) page and my text would still be in Spanish. I made sure that all of my settings, location, etc. was from Minnesota, USA.

So I visited the Google mail’s activity information security page which would tell me if someone from a different IP address range had used my account. I saw the normal (138.236.xx.xx) IP address range from Gustavus. Then I noticed a (173.xx.xx.xx) IP address from my home computer. Usually Mediacom has a (12.1.xx.xx) IP address, but apparently they had changed their IP range. This would usually be okay, however Google uses your IP range to give you a language specific version of their web site.

Message from Google:

We recently updated our location files and we
understand you’re now being redirected to www.google.es. As you may know,
we normally redirect users in countries other than the United States from
Google.com to one of our country-specific sites (e.g. www.google.co.uk for
Google UK) to provide easy access to country-specific search features.

We investigated the IP address you provided and have verified that we now
have the correct information on file for your location. In some instances,
it can take more than a month for these issues to be resolved.

In the meantime, if you’d prefer to visit a domain other than the one
we’re redirecting you to, you can set a bookmark for that specific domain.
To see a complete listing of international Google domains, please visit
http://www.google.com/language_tools

I was pretty impressed by Google’s responsiveness to my problem and hopefully they can make the change soon.

-Nick

Comments

6 responses to “Mediacom Internet Users”

  1. Nick Sonsteby Avatar
    Nick Sonsteby

    After further searching, it appears as if this has been a gradual change, and the change in IP address range just recently took affect in our area. (St. Peter, MN)

    Reply
  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    While using the internet connection at one of the 7th street houses last week I had a similar issue. Only in my case I was redirected to the Japanese version of Google’s home page. The IP I was using started with 173.18.104.xxx

    I was a little surprised at first, thinking I messed something up in my browser. But when I was back in my office and I was going to the regular Google homepage I was able to figure out that it must have to do with the IP range the house was given.

    Reply
  3. hwertz Avatar
    hwertz

    I don’t know were to report this, but in Iowa City, IA I’m getting Google.uk right now. I think this is recent. My IP was at a 24.something and is now 173.21.xx.xx range. Of course, that’s not as big a deal, it’s in English still 😎

    Reply
  4. Joe Lencioni Avatar
    Joe Lencioni

    Haha, I’m with Mediacom and Google thinks I’m in France.

    Reply
  5. Nick Sonsteby Avatar
    Nick Sonsteby

    The best place to report this is to Google. They responded promptly, however it may take awhile for them to update the info on their end. See email above.

    Reply
  6. vbcnvbncvb Avatar
    vbcnvbncvb

    the new ips that mediacom have been giving out are horrible, and the best place to report this is mediacom. its not googles fault that your ips are listed wrong its mediacoms fault for being completely incompetent

    Reply

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