Wrong locaction.

[#1]

Hi
I have noticed that by running speedtest on my computer the app kept giving my locaction wrong. same on the laptop and my phone. After investigating I check my ip and it seems to be located in London. (I'm near Leeds) although one site said Sheffield. I'm not sure how reliable them sites are. After looking up wrong ip locaction the general info is it ain't really a issue, something to do with geo mapping. But, this is where it gets weird.  When I ping test London I get a fast ping, when I ping Leeds.(which is a few miles away I get 120+ . Which seems back to front to me even if my location is wrong.
I'm pretty good with computers and not bad with routers but no nothing about these sorts of issues. Maybe I'm just been stupid or perhaps I have set something up wrong?? Any advice or knowledge would be welcome!
Thanks

[#2]

It's all to do with the routing of your traffic. Someone with detailed knowledge will give you a better answer I'm sure.

[#3]

Hi chatburger,
The sites that look at location use geo-ip location lists. As the IP that is assigned to your connection is listed as a Plusnet IP, it will be either as Sheffield where we are based, or London as this is where our broadband network terminates.
When it comes to pings, there is a lot more too it. When you ping London, your broadband connection terminates there anyway. It's most likely that the location you are pinging is to the same data centre as our broadband network anyway.
When you are pinging Leeds, your data is going from your location to London, and then up to Leeds.
It depends on how the system in Leeds is hosted, how loaded and what path the data takes to there from London, on how fast it will be.
Do you have the IP or hostname of the system you are pinging, so we can have a look to indicate why you may see this

[#4]

I was just using a speedtest app on the computer. Also a app On my phone. They all give similar results. I have really tried it any other way. My son does alot of online gaming so I have been trouble shooting.

[#5]

I just thought that the general rule was that the closer the server the better the ping. (to the client)  maybe I'm doing something wrong. The only other thing to add is my Internet was out for a few days a month or so ago. (dsl light was out) they played with something at my house and all was good.
I'm sure it wasn't showing these results before.
Maybe it's not even a issue and I'm been paranoid or maybe I just set my router up wrong when I reset it.

[#6]

Different connections terminate in different data centres (as Phil says I believe these are all in London) which means they'll take different routes to the speed test servers you're pinging though, and that'll affect the ping times. You'll probably find the values you get differ after a disconnect/reconnect, but either way it shouldn't have any effect on the gaming at all - if it does, it's the ping to the specific game server that's the issue rather than whatever the speed test says.
I don't think it's anything to worry about

[#7]

Quote from: chatburger

I just thought that the general rule was that the closer the server the better the ping. (to the client)

It depends on how you measure the distance. It's the length of the wires between you and the target that matters, not how close they are geographically. All Plusnet connections go via the gateways in London, so the length of the wires to a server in Leeds will be at least twice the distance from you to London.

[#8]

Ahhh. I see. Which I suppose adds confusion when people are using speed applications specifically for pings. Even more so if it maps there location correctly.
Lesson learned. Thanks for the info.
The only other think I would adds( just to justify my confusion) is that it hasn't always been this way for me!Unless my ping was so lightning fast that it covered the distance 4 times faster.

[#9]

To test just your connection you need to ping a Plusnet server which is located in the London suite where your connection terminates. The best one to use is ntp.plus.net.