I’m being targeted and threatened when gaming on Xbox, but I want to keep playing. I didn’t realise until now, how accurate my IP address is in terms of my location. I thought it would just show my city (Liverpool), I never realised that it also showed my town (Birkenhead) and pinpoint my location within 2 miles of my house. I understand that nothing is likely to happen, but the threats are quite uncomfortable, and these guys have told me my location from my IP address.
I paid for and downloaded a VPN on my laptop, set it to London and then shared the connection via Ethernet to my Xbox. This works ok and obviously shows that I’m in London, but it’s annoying connecting this way and it gives me a strict NAT which makes online gaming a bit miserable.
Instead of using a VPN, I connected to EE WiFi, which is included with BT Broadband (my current ISP), on the Xbox and then went on the console’s browser to login and connect. Gaming on this was fine, and it gave me a moderate NAT which didn’t cause me any problems. Whenever I connect to this, it shows my location in a random UK city, and in the unlikely event that the city is Liverpool, the town and pinpoint location are always inaccurate.
I don’t know a lot about networking, so I just wanted to ask, will connecting through EE WiFi protect me like a VPN? Will it stop my location and my real IP address being exposed? I’m concerned it might not because obviously the hotspot I’m connected to is coming from my own hub, but I really want to know so that I feel more secure when gaming online.
The city and town I’ve stated are made-up to protect myself, but everything else still stands. Thanks for your help.