MiFi / IP Help: in Ireland but have to be in the “UK” for my job

derek_p

Hi, hoping someone can please give me some advice.

I was living and working in the UK but when Covid hit, I legged it back to Ireland as we are all working from home now and I didn’t want to be doing that whilst locked up in a ****ty houseshare with strangers.

My company then announced that we all had to be back working in the UK for tax reasons, so I started commuting across the border to go work from NI. That is obviously no longer sustainable with all the restrictions, etc. so I had to stop.

I’ve told work that I am “in Northern Ireland” - I never admitted that the place I’m living is in the Republic (15 mins south of the border).

All this time, I have been using a mobile broadband device to sign on to our various work platforms. They hadn’t been tracking our IPs but recently we’ve had a lot of cyber attacks so they’re monitoring us now for unusual activity. And my IP flagged up so they questioned me about it.

I said that I was in NI using a mobile broadband device that was given to me and is locked to an Irish Network but I am just north of the border so I’m able to pick up both Irish and UK networks. They told me it looked like I was hopping around between different countries every couple of minutes so they were wondering what the craic was. It’s a tech company and I use their laptop so I don’t want to install a VPN on it as I figure they’d snare me somehow. I know that’s the obvious thing to do. Could they easily snare a VPN?

When my MiFi device has a bad connection, I sometimes tether my laptop off my UK phone (on roaming) - generally Eir or Vodafone Ireland. There’s also an app on my phone that’s i use for work so I guess it’s the phone that’s causing my IP to bounce around the place from their POV.

I’ve just had to travel to Dublin for a few weeks and the place I’m staying at has terrestrial broadband but I wasn’t sure if I should use it or not... On the plus side I won’t keep changing IPs all the time, but on the down side will work be able to place me in Dublin? If I used the MiFi device from here would they see a change in my location?

Other questions:

If I got terrestrial broadband installed in the place close to the border where I’m normally staying, would they be able to tell if the IP isn’t from a mobile broadband device? (could I pretend I was still on an Irish MiFi device?)

Does the story I told them check out - about me using an Irish MiFi device in Northern Ireland, i assume it would work no bother up there? (I also told them I’m in a mountainous region so network signal is geneally bit f*cked.)

Should I stop using my phone with work platforms altogether if that’s what’s giving me away & complicating things? (I don’t actually know what IP my phone shows if it’s a UK mobile on roaming - does it shows as UK or Ireland?)

If anyone has any advice about how I can get away with this for a few more months I’d be very grateful. It’s stressing me out.

Thanks for reading.

babelfish1990

derek_p wrote: »

Hi, hoping someone can please give me some advice.

I’ve told work that I am “in Northern Ireland” - I never admitted that the place I’m living is in the Republic (15 mins south of the border).

All this time, I have been using a mobile broadband device to sign on to our various work platforms. They hadn’t been tracking our IPs but recently we’ve had a lot of cyber attacks so they’re monitoring us now for unusual activity. And my IP flagged up so they questioned me about it.

Thanks for reading.

If your employer has your mobile number they can simply do a " HLR lookup" to determine if you are roaming outside of UK. They can do this irrespective of whether you hide your IP address.

Your excuse of being near the border and inadvertently roaming to IRL networks while still in UK might justify why you are roaming.

ED E

Maybe don't commit serious misconduct...

Cabaal

OP, boards.ie isn't here to assist you with findings ways to mislead your employer when it comes to the terms of your employment.

If they require you to work from the UK and you don't wish to work in the UK then take this up with your employer