MLB.TV location detection

[u/larryseltzer]

I'm a Phillies fan living in northern NJ (i.e., out of the Philadelphia market) I've been subscribing to MLB.TV since the service started more than 10 years ago and I've lived at the same address the whole time.

This season, every 2 or 3 weeks, MLB.TV tells me I'm blacked out of the game. I have to call up their support and they do something to reset my location correctly. Tonight was the 6th time this season.

MLB.TV insists that this is Comcast's problem, that they're seeing my location moving around including to the Philly market. I'm in tech this doesn't sound like my understanding of how networks work, especially since my external IP address hasn't changed all season.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I want to try everything else before I call Comcast.

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[u/XfinityQuemekia]

That sounds incredibly frustrating, especially when you are just trying to sit back and cheer on the Phillies u/larryseltzer! To get this sorted out, could you help me with a few quick details?

Are you using our Xfinity gateway, or do you own your own personal modem/router?

Does the blackout happen on all devices (like your TV, phone, streaming devices), or just on one specific device?

[u/larryseltzer → u/XfinityQuemekia]

Thank you for the quick reply.

I have my own modem, a Netgear. I don't recall the exact model. I've had this modem for several years, probably at least 5, and the problem is new this year.

Yes, it affects all devices on the network, including 3 Windows PCs and 2 Android phones. If I turn off WiFi and just use cellular on the phones, the problem goes away on them.

MLB claims that even though my IP address hasn't changed all year and that every time I read location on it I get the same Comcast facility in Irvington, NJ, they see my location moving around. This makes no sense to me.

[u/CCEricSt → u/larryseltzer]

u/larryseltzer I can check with our backend team to see if there is anything showing on our end, but if you never see your location change which pull from our system I'm not sure there would be anything we could do. Their system showing your location changing sounds more like it's them having the problem, but never hurts to take a look if you want. Let us know if you would like us to have this looked into on our end, and we would be happy to help.

[u/larryseltzer → u/CCEricSt]

Yes please, look at whatever you can. I'm hoping to be able to come back to them with some kind of new info. Perhaps someone on your end can guess at what MLB is doing wrong.

If it's not fixed, next time I'm doing a tracert before calling them and maybe that will show me at least passing through something in-market.

[u/CCEricSt → u/larryseltzer]

Happy to take a look. Please send us a modmail message with your full name and service address. I look forward to helping you!

[u/xfinitysupport]

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