How do these things work on the internet?
 

I've been on the net for a long time, but here's a couple of things I don't understand.

#1: I get my internet through the community HOA with cable and could have phone if I trusted the service. When I type something in as a URL that's no good I used to get an error from the browser that it couldn't find a site. Now I get a search page from the service provider suggesting alternatives to whatever I typed in.

#2: When i used my Droid at home hooked to the wifi, the map in the background knows exactly where I am. Is my wifi box broadcasting the location? How does this work?

1.) It is a DNS redirect. Technically, it is done in opposition to the specification. But, it is somewhat prevalent. Some ISPs, instead of providing the proper error message, will provide a search page. You can normally get around this by using other DNS servers.

2.) Could be a couple of things. You are either being geo-located by your IP address or you have GPS turned enabled on the Droid.

2) Big Brother is watching every move you make.

If you want to completely freak yourself out read this article...

German Politician Demonstrates Extent of Cellphone Location Tracking - Slashdot

2. Most of the new smart phones will use gps to provide their location, and if gps isn't available (your phone can't "hear" the satellites) then your phone will use triangulation of all of the cell towers that it can "see"

Which you should disable, as it encodes the lat/long in every photo you take.

That's an option on my phone, and compared to so much other stuff, I'm not sure that's that big a deal.

I know that. That's how the maps feature works. I get a site about a mile away when pulling the signal off the 3G. When I switch to the wireless, it shows my street. So is the wireless giving off the location or does it work some other way?

Go to maps.google.com and click the little circle between the zoom bar and the navigation arrows.... ;)

Maybe not, but it is something to be aware of. Here are a couple articles on the subject:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/technology/personaltech/12basics.html?_r=1

I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle

My Nook tablet has me located within 1 house. It has neither GPS nor cellular capability. I expect we are either IP located or triangulated by Wifi.

Guy I fly with is pretty high with the Civil Air Patrol. He is one of the first ones called when we have a plane go missing in this area.

In the last years the first thing they ask is "did the pilot have a cellphone" and if they did, what is the number? Turns out that its one of the best ways to find the pilot and plane.

Its not just the smartphones that do this... Check the metadata on photos coming out of your camera... More than a few cameras encode coordinates.....

locating an IP is extremely hard since if IP's are assigned by the block by the CO on DHCP.

however, google maps does have their trucks go around and locate wifi routers by mac address and then record their location.