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911 question for anyone who knows more than I do

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scout86

MyPTSD Pro
Called 911 this morning to report a small party of wayward cows and calves in my front yard. (I live about a mile off a busy 2 lane road, it was really foggy, I LIKE cows & these were on the move and I didn't want them or anyone else hurt.)

So, my only phone is a cellphone. Call was first routed to a neighboring county. Not a huge surprise. They connected me with my county. Made the report, answered the questions. The dispatcher knew my name. I was surprised. (He also asked for my date of birth, which was a surprise. I mean, how would he know THAT?) He asked for a good call back number. I said, "This one?" because by then I was wonder how much information he had in front of him. He had the phone number. Not a huge surprise. What WAS a surprise was when I got off the phone I noticed that I was connected to the WIFI network in my house. I didn't do that. I can, and I sometimes do, but I hadn't done it. Got on my computer to get online this morning and found that the computer was already connected to the WIFI. I'm nearly SURE that I disconnected last night when I shut the computer off. Once in awhile I forget, but rarely. WTH? Can a dispatcher remotely connect my devices to the nearest WIFI? Is that something that happens automatically?

I live in a pretty rural area. The houses on this road are far enough apart that you could probably make a real accurate guess from a fuzzy GPS signal. All the "location" stuff on my phone is shut off, or as shut off as I can get it, but I sort of assume that "the authorities" can bypass that if they want to. I'm sure a bunch of you know more about this kind of thing than I do. Any insights? (The cows wandered off before the fog lifted. Haven't heard any more. Sincerely hoping they all made it safely home!)
 
it would not be possible for them to remotely connect an offline computer to the internet. for the cellphone provider can provide the 911 dispatch with your cellphone information and the coordinates as per the FCC enhanced 911 ruling.
 
so -- here's how that works... :)

Biggest lie cell phone companies tell is that 911 can find you on your cell phone. Some can, come cant, but it really depends on a crap ton of tech stuff and luck to make it work correctly.

Here's the short version of how it goes. Your 911 cell call pings to the closest cell phone tower to you, then pings to the nearest dispatch center to that tower (not to where you are. To where the tower is). Which can be a long way from where you actually are. That's why you get transferred from one center to another.

When a 911 call comes in the dispatcher gets an ani/ali screen, which is supposed to show your name, address and phone number. But. Big but. Sometimes we get it all, sometimes we only get a phone number and a tower location.

If the location feature isn't working correctly it can be miles off. Yes - miles. Many miles. Then we have to play whackamole to try to find the center you are actually trying to reach.

Many cell companies are now using voice over internet (voip) in place of cell network service. Short version - the cell company attaches your phone to your wifi network when you are logged into it. Yep - cell company does that. It's probably been going on for a while, you just noticed it today. Next time you make a call take a look at your phone if you are home --- it will probably tell you its a 'wifi call" That wont change if your computer is off. You would have to disconnect your cell from the wifi each time you make a call to skip past that.

Whew. Still with me? LOL

If the cell company attaches the cell phone to the internet, then what sometimes comes up on the dispatchers screen is the address the computer is registered to. This is a huge problem with VOIP calls for 911 because it may or may not be where you actually are. That's why they have to confirm your address and phone number, and again, transfer you.

You can't turn the 911 location field off on any phone - that's an FCC thing.
What's really frustrating is that google can pinpoint your location no matter where you are and the best many 911 centers can do is get within 10 football fields.

The date of birth thing? That's a pretty common question, but it isn't something that comes up on our screen. It's more for record keeping crapola.

Hopefully that helps?
 
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. for the cellphone provider can provide the 911 dispatch with your cellphone information and the coordinates as per the FCC enhanced 911 ruling.
Ya -- bout that. Cell companies are required to provide accurate location information to 911.
That rule was past a couple decades ago
But they don't always

Many of them choose to pay the fines for not providing it to us rather than upgrade their equipment because it's cheaper.

Scary huh?
 
Thanks for all the info!
the cell company attaches your phone to your wifi network when you are logged into it. Yep - cell company does that. It's probably been going on for a while, you just noticed it today
Call it "a weird tinfoil hat thing" but I know they don't USUALLY do that because it's something I pay attention to. But, it seems entirely possible that they do it for 911 calls.

I saw the visiting cows in a pasture north of here yesterday afternoon. Looks like they made it home but they had a couple of miles of scary, not very cow friendly road to navigate both coming and going.
 
Call it "a weird tinfoil hat thing" but I know they don't USUALLY do that because it's something I pay attention to. But, it seems entirely possible that they do it for 911 calls.
when you say that your computer is offline, what do you mean exactly?

because if the computer is not connected to the internet there is no way for anyone to remotely connect it. your cellphone would not be able to pick up the SSID as the modem would be unplugged.

even if the ISP sent a signal to the device (which assumes that the ISP and cellphone company are the same-which often times they are not) it would not do anything as the device is offline.
 
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Call it "a weird tinfoil hat thing" but I know they don't USUALLY do that because it's something I pay attention to. But, it seems entirely possible that they do it for 911 calls.
Not sure I get this.... you are wondering if the cell company switches you to wifi when you call 911?
It's a good question because it might be a way for them to get around the FCC rule that they provide a location for you when you call. But that would only work if you were in range of your computer so I'm not sure how it would benefit them in the long run.

The whole cell phone/voip think makes me cranky because they tell people it will work to call 911 but it really doesn't. They usually have some kind of disclaimer in teeny tiny print at the bottom of the contract saying it doesn't work like they say. 😡
 
Do you turn off your modem when you turn off your computer?
Yes.

The cellphone and the ISP aren't the same company. The internet is a local company. (That seems to be REALLY good, for a small town, local co-op.) There's a fiber optic cable to the house and a router in the basement. Either (or both) the computer or the phone can use the wi-fi. The phone is capable of being used as a hotspot but the cellphone signal in the house isn't great. I almost never connect the phone to wi-fi because it's set up so the cellphone provider can only download updates when it is and I'd rather they didn't. (Their last "improvement" nearly cost me all of my saved text messages. Took an hour & a half to find them and there's no way to get the messaging app back to what it was.)

Anyway, standard procedure is for the phone NOT to be connected to the wi-fi and the computer to be disconnected when I shut it off. It's possible I forgot to disconnect the computer, but it's not possible I had anything to do with connecting the phone to the wi-fi. Because my internet provider is local, I can see where they might have some sort of deal to cooperate with the sheriff's office on 911 stuff.
 
Because my internet provider is local, I can see where they might have some sort of deal to cooperate with the sheriff's office on 911 stuff.
I'm gonna go with nope because, well, legal issues and privacy and such. They can't hijack your wifi without your knowledge - unless it's in the fine print of your cable bill. But then I wondered - are you in the states? Cause if not it's a whole different ball game. LOL

If you are really curious you can call and ask them. Most centers have a tech department that would love to bore you to tears explaining how it all works and they would be the ones who could give ya the scoop on what's happening in your town
😁 😁
 
are you in the states?
Yes.

I think I'm going to do a little asking around because I AM kind of curious. IDK about dealing with the sheriff's office. They don't have the best reputation. (Sheriff is an elected position here, so small town local politics are in the mix.)
 
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