POTWIN, Kan. (AP) — Joyce Vogelman Taylor couldn't quite explain why strangers kept calling or showing up at a property she owns in rural Kansas.
But she gained some clarity recently when the online site, Fusion.net, published an article about a Massachusetts-based company, MaxMind, which helps companies learn where their Internet traffic comes from. In its 2002 search for a middle-of-America spot for a U.S default IP address, and after consulting reference materials, MaxMind unknowingly selected the same geographic coordinates as Taylor's family home, which is rented out.
An IP address, which is akin to a physical address for computers, helps tell computers where to send information and where information is coming from. Sometimes MaxMind clients would want to know what state or city Internet traffic comes from. Others might want to know an exact house so, for example, they could send letters telling people to stop downloading illegal movies and music, The Wichita Eagle reported (http://j.mp/1MubV4G).
People are also reading…
Because of the confusion over the IP address and the physical address, since 2011 people had been showing up at the Vogelman property claiming that the IP address for their complaints was associated with the property. Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet eventually had to post a sign on the edge of the property telling people there had been a mistake and to call the sheriff.
A Wichita Eagle reporter told Taylor on Monday about the Fusion article, which also said MaxMind would move the geographic location for its default IP address away from her property north of Potwin and to a body of water.
"Yay!" said Taylor, 82.
"I do not know anything about the Internet," she said. "I really don't. I just know about being harassed."
Jason Ketola, MaxMind's vice president of operations, said the company's data isn't "intended to be used to identify particular households." He also said the company has changed the location of that default IP address away from Taylor's property and is looking at changing other IP addresses that could cause similar problems. He also said the company intends to apologize to Taylor.
___
Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, http://www.kansas.com
