Website recognition of Ireland

igora

Hi,

Sorry if this seems like a really silly question... but here goes.. How does a website recognise the country from which we are browsing from and is there a way one can change the country set up? For eg.. If I log onto the Aer Lingus site it brings me to the United Kingdom version and each time I have to scroll and search for Ireland and then wait for the page to reload.

Can I rectify this problem easily?

All advice appreciated

Ruu_Old

The information would be stored in your browsers cookies (used for holding specific information and tracking it like site preferences, shopping cart contents, etc) I would imagine. Clear the cookies or specifically with Aer Lingus, if you have an account with them there, you can change your 'home airport' location.

Tom Dunne

Would it not be in the Regional Settings under Control Panel?

I've seen other websites that I wouldn't have any cookies set, but the site detects I am in Ireland.

Edit: that example doesn't work any more for some reason.

cregser

The website has to be designed to look for cookies. It looks like the Aer Lingus site just goes to United Kingdom by default... not great. Unless (possibly) as Ruu said you have an account with them

Spear

igora wrote:

Hi,

Sorry if this seems like a really silly question... but here goes.. How does a website recognise the country from which we are browsing from and is there a way one can change the country set up? For eg.. If I log onto the Aer Lingus site it brings me to the United Kingdom version and each time I have to scroll and search for Ireland and then wait for the page to reload.

Can I rectify this problem easily?

All advice appreciated

Are you on an NTL or UTV connection? They can appear as UK addresses at times.

daveyjoe

They can find out what country you are browsing from (or at least what country your ISP is in) by your IP address. NTL uses UK IP addresses, I think that UTV are using Irish IP addresses now.

**Timbuk2**

Well for example if you go to

http://www.google.com in Ireland, it redirects you to www.google.ie

But if you go to the .com in the UK, you get the UK version. Maybe that is what the OP is talking about?

Ziycon

daveyjoe is right, most of these type of sites, i mean like amjor corp. type sites can track/identify you by you IP address, the sites can identify if you IP is in Ireland or the UK or anywhere in the world!

igora

Hi ,

I am actually using Eircom Broadband. I do also have an account with Aer Lingus but normally when I visit the site I do not always sign in... maybe I should from now and get them to remember me!

I have noticed too that the majority of other sites do recognise the fact that I am browsing from Ireland. I had tried changing the regional settings but it did not work for me either.

netwhizkid

I find that language settings have quite a bit to do with it.

I presume you are using Internet Explorer. Try this,

Tools > Internet Options > Languages, make sure it is set to English (Ireland), if it is set to something else change it to English (Ireland), clear off History and Temp Internet Files and close and reopen the browser and try opening the website you are having trouble with e.g. Aer Lingus etc.

If you are using Firefox (much better browser in my opinion) Try,

Tools > Options > Advanced > Edit Languages and set it to English/Ireland
Press Clear Private Data and tick everything except passwords if you have saved passwords you don't want to delete.

I had this problem last month when I was trying to book flights from Ireland to the New York with Continental for relatives who came home on a one-way ticket with Aer Lingus but found it very costly to go back with them. Anyway it was indicating I was in the UK and giving me prices in UK£, I changed my language settings in Firefox to English/Ireland and now it was displaying Euros and recognising me in Ireland. My relatives wanted to be billed in Dollars so I changed the language settings to English/US and it worked and gave me the price in Dollars and recognised me as being in the US (even though I was in fact in Ireland) The Dollar Price worked out about €10 or €15 cheaper as a result of the exchange rate and the fact it was for three people making it expensive anyway.

Simple solution to a tricky problem!

STaN

Ryanair and Aer Lingus detect my language from the language i have set in my browser (firefox).

Its set to en-GB by default on mine. If i change to en-IE i am directed to the irish site. Simple!

Ruu_Old

STaN wrote:

Ryanair and Aer Lingus detect my language from the language i have set in my browser (firefox).

Its set to en-GB by default on mine. If i change to en-IE i am directed to the irish site. Simple!

Yep that will do it alright.

Mountjoy Mugger

I thought the IP was checked to identify where you came from?

kippy

For Google it is definetly the IP address that determines what page you are presented with. Aer Lingus appears to be different.
Kippy

igora

Thanks a million, everyone.

Changed the language to En-ie and it worked.