Random Steam Login Locations

[GreenEggsAndSam]

Hey all, had a quick question that I wanted to get some feedback about. I was looking through my Steam login history today and I noticed some odd login locations. Some of the odd spots are a city away, and others are states across the country. To clarify, I have steam guard, a safe password, and have never noticed anything shady on my account. I also don’t think a vpn has anything to do with it! This also hasn’t happened in nearly eight months. So let me know if I’m overreacting! Appreciate any responses.

[rawWwRrr]

Could be that your ISP has rerouted your connection to a different hub. Most home IPs are not static and get shuffled around between subscribers. They will also restructure their network from time to time as they adapt to their load or as they update/replace hardware. According to my login history, I'm connecting from a few cities away from me. Occasionally it blips me to another state.

[GreenEggsAndSam]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Could be that your ISP has rerouted your connection to a different hub. Most home IPs are not static and get shuffled around between subscribers. They will also restructure their network from time to time as they adapt to their load or as they update/replace hardware. According to my login history, I'm connecting from a few cities away from me. Occasionally it blips me to another state.

Honestly this could be the case! Thanks. I think that helps me a lot. Like I said, it hasn’t happened in a while, and it wasn’t very frequent in my history when I noticed it! Appreciate the response :)

[Supafly]

Steam never and I do mean NEVER gets my location right. At best I'm logged in from a city 150 miles away. I can use a VPN for a city 200-300 miles away and Steam can show me logged in 50 miles away. Right now, no VPN, my PC shows me logged in 150+miles away and my phone, mobile data not the wifi, shows me logged in around 80 miles away.


Saying you have Steam Guard doesn't mean much. So many people with hijacked accounts are forever saying that as though it makes their accounts immune to compromise. It's just another key. If it can't be kept secure it has 0 added security. Give a Live Steam Guard code to a stranger along with username and password and that stranger would have access to the account. Just the same as if someone gave their house keys to a stranger that stranger would then have access to their home.

Not saying that's you, just thought I'd point that out to be sure.

If you're concerned about your account security, ensure the account is secure by doing all of these
Scan for Malware/virus https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/
Deauthorize all devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Change your Account password on a secure device, mobile phone for example.
Generate new back up codes https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey

[TheFrendlyPsychopath]

неплохо

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam never and I do mean NEVER gets my location right. At best I'm logged in from a city 150 miles away. I can use a VPN for a city 200-300 miles away and Steam can show me logged in 50 miles away. Right now, no VPN, my PC shows me logged in 150+miles away and my phone, mobile data not the wifi, shows me logged in around 80 miles away.

Steam isn't making the decision about where you are located. They use the same geolocation data associated with the IP they see you on just like everyone else does. ISPs are responsible for how accurate this data is.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Steam isn't making the decision about where you are located. They use the same geolocation data associated with the IP they see you on just like everyone else does. ISPs are responsible for how accurate this data is.

Still doesn't change the fact what Steam shows as you login location is often inaccurate. Steams login page is what I was referring to NOT the source Steam gets the info from.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Steam isn't making the decision about where you are located. They use the same geolocation data associated with the IP they see you on just like everyone else does. ISPs are responsible for how accurate this data is.

Still doesn't change the fact what Steam shows as you login location is often inaccurate. Steams login page is what I was referring to NOT the source Steam gets the info from.

Ok? How can Steam make a better guess than the data they depend on? If the location data is incorrect then Steam will report the same incorrect data.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by Supafly:

Still doesn't change the fact what Steam shows as you login location is often inaccurate. Steams login page is what I was referring to NOT the source Steam gets the info from.

Ok? How can Steam make a better guess than the data they depend on? If the location data is incorrect then Steam will report the same incorrect data.

Not what I said. I was merely pointing out it WASN'T that accurate. At no point did I say it sucked and needed improvement. Stop picking and making implications where there was none.
I'll repeat it again. Steams login location data is NOT that accurate. Not a big deal. Just that as the location isn't 100% accurate you need to keep that in mind when checking it.

That isn't me saying Steam needs to fix or improve anything. Just pointing out as it isn't 100% accurate users need to accept that when they check login history.

Can also have a look at various other IP location sites for comparison. Here's one for example
https://www.iplocation.net/

That shows me as London were as Steam shows me as Manchester. Neither are correct. I'm 2 hours from one and 1 hour from the other.

[//M34_]

If you log into your account while on mobile data it will appear in random places. I'm in the Midwest, sometimes it'll show 50 miles away, other times it's been a few states away. Almost scared the crap out of me when I first saw it but tracked it to my mobile usage

[GreenEggsAndSam]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam never and I do mean NEVER gets my location right. At best I'm logged in from a city 150 miles away. I can use a VPN for a city 200-300 miles away and Steam can show me logged in 50 miles away. Right now, no VPN, my PC shows me logged in 150+miles away and my phone, mobile data not the wifi, shows me logged in around 80 miles away.


Saying you have Steam Guard doesn't mean much. So many people with hijacked accounts are forever saying that as though it makes their accounts immune to compromise. It's just another key. If it can't be kept secure it has 0 added security. Give a Live Steam Guard code to a stranger along with username and password and that stranger would have access to the account. Just the same as if someone gave their house keys to a stranger that stranger would then have access to their home.

Not saying that's you, just thought I'd point that out to be sure.

If you're concerned about your account security, ensure the account is secure by doing all of these
Scan for Malware/virus https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/
Deauthorize all devices https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Change your Account password on a secure device, mobile phone for example.
Generate new back up codes https://store.steampowered.com/twofactor/manage
Revoke the API key https://steamcommunity.com/dev/apikey

Thanks for the reply. I actually did a lot of these steps yesterday! Appreciate the response.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Supafly:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Ok? How can Steam make a better guess than the data they depend on? If the location data is incorrect then Steam will report the same incorrect data.

Not what I said. I was merely pointing out it WASN'T that accurate. At no point did I say it sucked and needed improvement.

Consider wording your statements to be more inline with what is actually wrong then. When you say something along the lines of:

Originally posted by Supafly:

Steam never and I do mean NEVER gets my location right. At best I'm logged in from a city 150 miles away. I can use a VPN for a city 200-300 miles away and Steam can show me logged in 50 miles away. Right now, no VPN, my PC shows me logged in 150+miles away and my phone, mobile data not the wifi, shows me logged in around 80 miles away.

... makes it appear that Steam is at fault. "Steam never ... gets my location right." It's not Steam trying to derive your location. It's something else that Steam uses. They, the ISPs, are to blame, not Steam. It's fine that you want to point out that Steam's location data is wrong, but you're wording seems to placing all of the burden on them as if they have any control over that data.

[Supafly]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

... makes it appear that Steam is at fault. "Steam never ... gets my location right." It's not Steam trying to derive your location. It's something else that Steam uses. They, the ISPs, are to blame, not Steam. It's fine that you want to point out that Steam's location data is wrong, but you're wording seems to placing all of the burden on them as if they have any control over that data.

What am I supposed to do? Point out every single contract, client, leased, franchised or anything else that is involved in anything from now on.

Hey, I wouldn't use that car wash at the bottom of the street........it'ss appalling, just to be clear it's because of the cheap car wash solution and streaky wax, cloth or personnel.

If you're going to the chip shop take a 1 minute longer walk to the next one. The closest is ****. Nothing tastes that nice. Could be the brand of cooking oil, detergent lingering due to poor cleaning or any other reason I CBA to mention. Not that it makes any different if the food just doesn't taste as nice as the other place.

Bit TMI for my liking

[mito]

when verifying my authenticator it had showed me a location in california (note i don’t live in the western united states at all i live on the eastern)

[kev]

I thought that I've been hacked 😂 I appreciate the response thank you!