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GPS LOC: Off by at least a mile


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I have flexispy installed on tmobile g1. Have been testing. Over 50% of time GPS Loc is off by more than a mile either lat or long never both. Used instamapper.com software previously, was never off more than 100+ feet, most of the time gps was right on target. Is this an issue with flexispy or with android? Any Fixes?

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Additional info: on web interface. Positioning Method : Other/Unknown

Is the phone to able to use GPS?

I have flexispy installed on tmobile g1. Have been testing. Over 50% of time GPS Loc is off by more than a mile either lat or long never both. Used instamapper.com software previously, was never off more than 100+ feet, most of the time gps was right on target. Is this an issue with flexispy or with android? Any Fixes?

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Additional info: on web interface. Positioning Method : Other/Unknown

Is the phone to able to use GPS?

Is GPS accurate on other applications on the TARGET phone?

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Is GPS accurate on other applications on the TARGET phone?

Yes, Ive tried two other online gps tracking services. instamapper and buddyway. both were accurate within a 0 - 100 ft but always in general area. of course these programs are not useful for purpose as their clients are visible. I'm thinking android does not use gps when run in background. May be using cell towers only. Is their anyway to set android to always use gps.

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The product will use integrated GPS, but if the phone is indoors or there are any obstructions which prevent a direct signal satellite connection, then it will default to network assisted or Cell ID, basically whatever it can find that is available. I'm guessing that these other programs might ONLY use integrated GPS mode, which means that you can't get any location at all (even if just close enough for an estimate) when a satellite isn't available. This is basically anytime the phone is indoors, under cloudy sky or otherwise can't make a direct line of sight connection to a satellite. It should be noted that the reliability of Cell ID depends a lot on the population density of the area. In a major metropolitan area it should be pretty accurate, as there are more cell towers to smaller radius areas, but in less dense areas a single tower may carry the connection for a larger radius, and thats why you might think the location is off more than it should be.

I would suggest making sure the phone is outdoors and can make a direct integrated satellite connection, using the built in GPS utility and maps to get an accurate location. Then turn the phone off and back on, letting FlexiSPY reload. Do this all while you are outside and know you've got a good satellite connection. Then FlexiSPY will try the GPS and find the satellite, and will stick with it as long as the connection remains available. Those other apps must be using Cell ID whenever the phone is indoors as well, but they may not be updating the location as often as you've chosen with the GPS refresh setting in the FlexiSPY menus.

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The product will use integrated GPS, but if the phone is indoors or there are any obstructions which prevent a direct signal satellite connection, then it will default to network assisted or Cell ID, basically whatever it can find that is available. I'm guessing that these other programs might ONLY use integrated GPS mode, which means that you can't get any location at all (even if just close enough for an estimate) when a satellite isn't available. This is basically anytime the phone is indoors, under cloudy sky or otherwise can't make a direct line of sight connection to a satellite. It should be noted that the reliability of Cell ID depends a lot on the population density of the area. In a major metropolitan area it should be pretty accurate, as there are more cell towers to smaller radius areas, but in less dense areas a single tower may carry the connection for a larger radius, and thats why you might think the location is off more than it should be.

I would suggest making sure the phone is outdoors and can make a direct integrated satellite connection, using the built in GPS utility and maps to get an accurate location. Then turn the phone off and back on, letting FlexiSPY reload. Do this all while you are outside and know you've got a good satellite connection. Then FlexiSPY will try the GPS and find the satellite, and will stick with it as long as the connection remains available. Those other apps must be using Cell ID whenever the phone is indoors as well, but they may not be updating the location as often as you've chosen with the GPS refresh setting in the FlexiSPY menus.

Thanks for all the info. You're right, on the other programs, many times I will not receive loc information for long periods. I will try your suggestions and post my results but I would like to post this result on my gps. The Yellow marker was my actual loc. 1-2 results in 20. The purple marker was approx a mile away from my loc. and appeared approx 12-15 out of 20 results. The red marker was a sample of an occasional result approx 6 miles from actual loc. 3-7 results out of 20. During the 3 hr period the target phone did not move. Was Indoors. I have gps set for every 10 min.

maphd.jpg

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Ok, well this kind of makes sense. I can see from the map that this is not a densely populated area, and the network signal the phone is using is probably bouncing around from tower to tower a little bit. The more you go into town or into heavier populated areas, you'll see the Cell ID or network based locations will become more accurate and reliable. But its important to understand that FlexiSPY isn't really wrong about this, its just reporting the information the phone is receiving from the network (when the method reported in the account says "other"). If indoors, the accuracy depends on how close the phone is to the nearest tower (or nearest two towers), which could vary, especially if the signal strength is not at peak level or if the connection drops occasionally.

The thing about Cell ID is that once you know the ID of the particular cell towers in a certain area, this is good enough to indicate when the phone is at a known location. Its just not very helpful if you don't already know which towers provide service to "Bob's house", or etc. So its helpful to record these Cell ID's when you know where the phone is, so you can track them when they show up again later. People in denser areas often do get pretty reliable Cell ID readings, but if you get an Integrated reading, that's generally always spot on. You can set the GPS refresh time more frequent to increase the chance of this, but the trade off is that checking GPS too often can noticeably reduce battery power, since it generally takes a lot of power to turn on the GPS circuitry.

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Ok, well this kind of makes sense. I can see from the map that this is not a densely populated area, and the network signal the phone is using is probably bouncing around from tower to tower a little bit. The more you go into town or into heavier populated areas, you'll see the Cell ID or network based locations will become more accurate and reliable. But its important to understand that FlexiSPY isn't really wrong about this, its just reporting the information the phone is receiving from the network (when the method reported in the account says "other"). If indoors, the accuracy depends on how close the phone is to the nearest tower (or nearest two towers), which could vary, especially if the signal strength is not at peak level or if the connection drops occasionally.

The thing about Cell ID is that once you know the ID of the particular cell towers in a certain area, this is good enough to indicate when the phone is at a known location. Its just not very helpful if you don't already know which towers provide service to "Bob's house", or etc. So its helpful to record these Cell ID's when you know where the phone is, so you can track them when they show up again later. People in denser areas often do get pretty reliable Cell ID readings, but if you get an Integrated reading, that's generally always spot on. You can set the GPS refresh time more frequent to increase the chance of this, but the trade off is that checking GPS too often can noticeably reduce battery power, since it generally takes a lot of power to turn on the GPS circuitry.

Again, thanks for the help and information. I've read online about wifi location information with android and google maps. Is this feature something that has to be enabled? Will it improve accuracy when gps is not available? Something to do with wifi information captured by google street view. Maybe I just have to move to a bigger city.

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Again, thanks for the help and information. I've read online about wifi location information with android and google maps. Is this feature something that has to be enabled? Will it improve accuracy when gps is not available? Something to do with wifi information captured by google street view. Maybe I just have to move to a bigger city.

There are lots of social networking apps that intend to update friends to each other's whereabouts, and Google has mapped the WiFi networks in many areas and are now combining this information with Google Maps, in a program called Google Latitude. Keep in mind however that none of these type of applications are discreet, and requires loading a visible program on the phone. It also requires these functions to be enabled and running on the device, and may require manual approval to share the information with the public or with others in a "friends" network. Here is a link to a good article about Google Latitude:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-trace-a-mobile-phone-location-with-google-latitude/

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There are lots of social networking apps that intend to update friends to each other's whereabouts, and Google has mapped the WiFi networks in many areas and are now combining this information with Google Maps, in a program called Google Latitude. Keep in mind however that none of these type of applications are discreet, and requires loading a visible program on the phone. It also requires these functions to be enabled and running on the device, and may require manual approval to share the information with the public or with others in a "friends" network. Here is a link to a good article about Google Latitude:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-trace-a-mobile-phone-location-with-google-latitude/

Ok, I found and disabled the use of wireless networks for location services. I did the steps recommended to me earlier in the thread and I have been recieving very accurate gps data, even while indoors. Did a Live test on the target phone and was happy with the result. The target phone is recieving an error when sending an sms message. Im wondering if this is a result of the logging of the message by flexispy?

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Ok, I found and disabled the use of wireless networks for location services. I did the steps recommended to me earlier in the thread and I have been recieving very accurate gps data, even while indoors. Did a Live test on the target phone and was happy with the result. The target phone is recieving an error when sending an sms message. Im wondering if this is a result of the logging of the message by flexispy?

An sms sent out from the Target, with an error appearing also on the Target (such as undelivered)? What is the specific SMS being sent, where is it sent to, and what is the specific error?

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An sms sent out from the Target, with an error appearing also on the Target (such as undelivered)? What is the specific SMS being sent, where is it sent to, and what is the specific error?

Sorry, it took so long to reply... sms sent on target phone an error message appears from android. The error is an android system error, with the options to cancel or wait. choose wait and message is sent. It looks like the error occurs when flexispy copies contents of outgoing sms messages.

Manuel

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Sorry, it took so long to reply... sms sent on target phone an error message appears from android. The error is an android system error, with the options to cancel or wait. choose wait and message is sent. It looks like the error occurs when flexispy copies contents of outgoing sms messages.

Manuel

There isn't any SMS that's sent when FlexiSPY reports the data to the server. If FlexiSPY sends SMS from the Target it is only in response to commands that you send it, such as for Diagnostic Report, or any other command you send in which you added a <d> at the end (requesting confirmation response). You did not clarify exactly what the SMS message is, or where the message is sent to. This might have been any sms sent by the user to anyone, and the error is likely unrelated to FlexiSPY.

If it is an Android error message with the "cancel or wait" options, this is a very standard Android problem. It can happen with any application or any basic function (like sending SMS), more frequently on earlier models with limited memory and/or storage space. If the phone gets slower after installing many applications or begins to run low on memory, this message can appear often until either rebooted or until more memory becomes free.

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  • 1 month later...

The product will use integrated GPS, but if the phone is indoors or there are any obstructions which prevent a direct signal satellite connection, then it will default to network assisted or Cell ID, basically whatever it can find that is available.

Is it possible to tell which positioning method was used for a particular location event via the web account reporting?

In other words, if gps was used for a particular event, will the positioning method field value show as "GPS" or will it still show up as "Other (Unknown)"?

For each entry reported I always see:

"Positioning Method: Other (Unknown)"

What other field values are possible for Positioning Method? Or will it always report "Other (Unknown)" regardless of GPS, network assisted, Cell ID? Thanks.

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