Location service weirdness - GPS / wifi locations

Question

I currently live in Hong Kong and seem to get some interesting & irritating locations on the Maps application.
I am located at 1 of the 3 locations randomly from my apartment:
- Tokyo Japan (same apartment I lived in when I was in Tokyo last year)
- Mutan Pakistan (I assume a neighbor of mine was living in Pakistan with his wireless router and has since moved to HK)
- Hong Kong (when it works it is quire precise)
Anyone know how to zap the 'bad' data from Skyhook's database?

Answer 1

Philly_Phan wrote:
I have a half-dozen apps that rely on Location Service. I went through several weeks of Intermittant operation before I figured out what's happening.
My router is in an upstairs bedroom. If i'm downstairs, Location Service works maybe 25% of the time althiugh the WiFi data signal is rock solid and my Internet access is flawless. After much weeping and gnashing of teeth, I've confirmed that the only RELIABLE way to make it work is to take the iPad to the room where the router is located. Apparently, the Location Service information is carried on a different (weaker) radio signal than the WiFi Internet data.
There is one thing that I still don't understand. How does the router know where It is? This is a DSL router that's on the subscriber end of a telephone line. It has no GPS circuitry. Worse, it reliably identifies my location incorrectly (although close enough for my purposes). I live at house #7 but Location Service always pinpoints me at house #1 a hundred yards away. Can anyone explain what's happening?
The location service is not carried on any weaker radio signal. It uses the same WiFi as any other transfer to and from your router.
Location services knows where you are from the MAC address of your router and other nearby routers. These MAC addresses are registered in a location services database with their physical location. The database was constructed by WiFi access point locaters which have driven through neighborhoods gathering data.
Location services may work better upstairs because, at that location, your iPad can probably locate other nearby routers which are in the location services database. There may be a know router in house #1 or nearby. Your router itself may not actually be in the database yet.
Message was edited by: JimHdk