I'm trying to work out why Siri wants me to turn on wifi to know my location when I ask it what the weather is. I'm connected to the router via ethernet. How does using wifi identify my location...? 
Mac Location Services
- Thread starter Schtum
- Start date
Having the wifi on helps improve location accuracy.
Possibly but how does it do that?
Wifi networks are geolocated.
Even if you are not connected (as in logged in) to networks (and its access points) around you, they can still help triangulate the location.
Even if you are not connected (as in logged in) to networks (and its access points) around you, they can still help triangulate the location.
Ahh ok. So even though my computer isn't connected to other wifi networks, it would still recognise them and they'd be used for geolocation.
I'm wondering how that would be affected if there are no other local wifi networks. How would only my wifi network aid location?
Yes.
I was puzzled years ago for the same requests "wifi increases location accuracy".
Then, I noticed that when I was scanning networks (with iStumbler, a Mac app, I was getting coordinates for the networks).
The phone is always polling available networks in the background and can get the name of the network and MAC address (fingerprint) of the access point it is "listening" to.
It helps a lot in situations when you are indoors. Think about a shopping mall. Radio triangulation (wifi/bluetooth beacons) can give great accuracy to navigate within the stores, etc.
Maybe not much.
I was puzzled years ago for the same requests "wifi increases location accuracy".
Then, I noticed that when I was scanning networks (with iStumbler, a Mac app, I was getting coordinates for the networks).
The phone is always polling available networks in the background and can get the name of the network and MAC address (fingerprint) of the access point it is "listening" to.
It helps a lot in situations when you are indoors. Think about a shopping mall. Radio triangulation (wifi/bluetooth beacons) can give great accuracy to navigate within the stores, etc.
Maybe not much.
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