[Info-vax] Any large VMS users in St. Helena ?

[johnwallace4 at yahoo.co.uk]

On Thursday, 6 December 2018 20:48:45 UTC, Jan-Erik Söderholm  wrote:
> Den 2018-12-06 kl. 21:32, skrev Simon Clubley:
> > On 2018-12-06, Jan-Erik Söderholm <jan-erik.soderholm at telia.com> wrote:
> >> Den 2018-12-06 kl. 20:57, skrev John Reagan:
> >>
> >>>>> On 12/6/18 8:30 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
> >>
> >>>>>> 1) St. Helena
> >>>>>> 2) China
> >>>>>> 3) Sweden
> >>>>>> 4) Puerto Rico
> >>>>>> 5) Finland
> >>
> >> Doesn't matter what you search for, S:t Helena is almost always
> >> in second position. I tried "MVS", "Linux", "TCPIP" and some other
> >> computer related phrases. So, what was your point, Simon?
> >>
> > 
> > The point in this case is that I wasn't expecting what you found
> > below, especially given the US based data for "openvms" looked
> > so reasonable, so I _thought_ this list was genuine...
> > 
> >> It it is also easy to find references like:
> >>
> >> https://medium.com/@sangare/google-search-the-very-strange-case-of-tristan-da-cunha-st-helena-ad6e2d61028c
> >>
> >> https://twitter.com/justindeed/status/933725222213177344
> >>
> >> Anyway, this thread has nothing with VMS to do.
> >>
> > 
> > Well, that's something new I have learned today. Thanks for the
> > links Jan-Erik.
> > 
> >>>
> >>> Does some VPN service have an exit point near St Helena?
> >>>
> >>
> >> Doesn't have to be near St Helena, only to have a similar
> >> tcpip address range fooling the Google tools...
> >>
> > 
> > Now I can see this is part of a much larger mystery, I would
> > love to know what is going on.
> > 
> > Simon.
> > 
> 
> Always happy when I’m able to spread some happiness! :-)
> 
> Maybe S:t Helena have sold an IP address range to some VPN company?
> If they can that, I've no idea. Nice way to add further confusion around
> the VPN customers origine. Or even that VPN companys origin ... :-)

Have a look at 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha
and see if it sheds any light on the matter.

Geolocation (?) from ISP-provided IPv4 address is still a thing
in many parts of the world, sometimes with interesting results.

On the other hand, if Google have their usual tracking info on
their search users client apps, they'll be in a much better 
position to work out where the searches might be coming from.