Google.com default to wrong country and google don't respond

Mark Kwan · ‎01-01-2016

Hi anybody .. wondering who else is seeing this and if there is a really a 'fix' by google. I have a site in which I advertised a couple of /24 network out to my ISP via BGP. I have an Firewall which I PAT a single host ip address so that when my internal hosts browse, that is my public IP address to the Internet.

Let's say the IP address 100.100.100.50.. A couple of month ago, I realzce that when we browse to www.google.com, it brings me to google.com in Brazil. All your search content is for that local geographic area. I'm in the United states.. Googling the issue, there are multiple posts about how to set your browser so that it will not do that. However, that is not a solution as I have multiple machines browsing out via this location. Also, if you reset your browser setting, the fix goes away. It's an issue of google thinking my subnet as originating in Brazil. At first, I thought maybe google just think it's my single host ip that is from Brazil and I can just change it to a different host IP (100.100.100.51) however the problem remains. Another puzzling thing is if I try another host IP out of the other /24 networks that I advertised out from this location the result is the same. These subnets are valid public IP addresses that is registered with ARIN. I actually have a registered /19 and I assigned /24 subnets out of my /19 range at other locations with no issue. It's only at this site that I have this google.com issue. Bing works fine and so does other search engines. I read through this google link in which it you can report the issue and request a fix , but it's been months now and the problem remains

https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/873?hl=en

you can go to request the 'fix'..--- https://support.google.com/websearch/contact/ip

here a funny thing, I also saw this problem while connecting to the Cisco wireless for guest while attending a workshop. Google.com defaults to Columbia ! Mentioned it to my SE and he also claims it's an Google issue.

Don't know what to do.. I have a 'hack' in which I take that the PAT ip address and NAT it again ( NAT overload to my ISP's interface IP ) as it travese out my Internet router but not really comfortable doing that. Anybody have any ideas or suggestions ?

Thanks

Philip D'Ath · ‎01-01-2016

I think Google determines your initial location based on where your DNS queries come from, not your IPv4 address.

Specifically, it is where the DNS resolver is located.

So for example, if you are in the USA, and use a local DNS server (say on your CPE) which then sends the request to a DNS resolver in Brazil, and this resolver is the one that sends the requests to Google's DNS server asking for Google's IP address, then Google will think you are in Brazil.

So take a careful look at how your DNS works. If you own your own DNS servers sometimes you can create a route for google.com and send it to another DNS server to resolve for you so that you requests appear to be coming from somewhere different.

Mark Kwan · ‎01-02-2016

That is a possibility but after some thoughts on the matter I dont' think it's due to DNS for the following reasons:

1) While we do run our internal DNS servers, we don't use any type of external DNS servers IP adresses such as 8.8.8.8 or any provided by our ISP. They all point to the 13 DNS root servers. This is also replicated between all our DNS servers at each locations and this issue only appear in one location. In fact, it's actually in my data center which houses the main DNS servers.

2) I mentioned that I have a 'hack' workaround for this which I take the suspect PAT ip address and NAT overload it to the ISP's interface and that works. If it was DNS then the result would still be the same as I would still be using the same geographically incorrect DNS server to resolve google.com

3) In the link I supplied, Google themselves acknowledge this could be a possibility and offers a link for affected users to report the issue..

Thanks for your response.

final note. I do believe that using a DNS server not in your geographic area can affect how CDN can affect your access to those sites.

Philip D'Ath · ‎01-20-2016

Yay. Finally bubbled to the top of the queue.

Mark Kwan · ‎01-20-2016

Think Google finally resolved the issue as my problem just went away recently.. Only took 4 months !!