IS my location REALLY hidden? It seems not.

[syncswim 1]

Hi,

 

I've been using your service for a year or two now without any major problems. Sometimes I run a quick 'what's my ip' check to make sure things look ok, but today I noticed something strange, and worrying.

 

If I check here:

 

http://www.whatsmyip.org/more-info-about-you/ 

 

my true location is shown on the map, accurate to a few hundred meters

 

But if I check here:

 

http://www.whatismyip.com/

 

the location of the airvpn server I'm connected to is shown.

 

Both sites listed correctly show my airvpn exit IP, not my real IP. The airvpn connection is made on the router with dd-wrt so all connections in my home should run through the VPN, except for one exception I set up for my partner's computer.

 

How can this happen?

[syncswim 1]

Sorry for multiple posts, I was getting an error message about clogged tubes each time I attempted to post...

[rickjames 106]

Is it a dns issue?

 

I've never run dd-wrt but I would start by checking the dns.

http://ipleak.net/

http://entropy.dns-oarc.net/test/

https://www.dnsleaktest.com/

[syncswim 1]

Thanks for suggesting these sites. However, they all seem to show normal results. ie they all show my airvpn ip and my airvpn server location...

[dante2008 0]

Have you tried to refresh the webpage in question forcefully (i.e. Ctrl + F5)?

Sometimes AirVPN webpage shows my original IP address even though I'm already connected to one of the servers.

[S.O.A. 83]

Thanks for suggesting these sites. However, they all seem to show normal results. ie they all show my airvpn ip and my airvpn server location...

 

 

If that is what they are showing then you are hidden. 

[Staff 10014]

Hello!

 

Please note: geo-localization is based on javascript and is not necessarily related to your IP address.

 

Kind regards

[Gaechka 7]

Hi,

 

I've been using your service for a year or two now without any major problems. Sometimes I run a quick 'what's my ip' check to make sure things look ok, but today I noticed something strange, and worrying.

 

If I check here:

 

http://www.whatsmyip.org/more-info-about-you/ 

 

my true location is shown on the map, accurate to a few hundred meters

 

But if I check here:

 

http://www.whatismyip.com/

 

the location of the airvpn server I'm connected to is shown.

 

Both sites listed correctly show my airvpn exit IP, not my real IP. The airvpn connection is made on the router with dd-wrt so all connections in my home should run through the VPN, except for one exception I set up for my partner's computer.

 

How can this happen?

 

The site you have mentioned: http://www.whatsmyip.org/more-info-about-you/ is using Google Maps to show your location on the World Map... I'm not an expert, but maybe (just maybe) Google is using some information which it stores in its cookie files from your past internet usage? I mean, maybe sometime in the past you were using your browser without being connected to the AirVPN and Google saved your real location and now it uses this info from its cookies which are still saved in your browser? It's just my guess...

[ishap 4]

I've seen similar, Google doesn't just use your active browser session for info about you, but say you once logged into a Google services on your PC. Even behind the VPN, then you use your phone with the same account, presto, it knows your true location.

[Artful Dodger 23]

Some websites detect your location based on your IP address, which is visible to all websites you visit. However, most of the time this type of geolocation is not accurate and is limited to the city or postal/zip code level. AirVPN protects your real IP.

 

Your geographic location is obtained through various means such as using wifi data, Java etc and is often highly accurate. 

 

Websites can ask the browser for your location using javascript. When they do so, the browser first asks your permission, and if you accept, it detects your location (typically by transmitting a list of available wifi access points to a geolocation provider such as Google Location Services) and gives it to the website.

[rickjames 106]

Thanks for suggesting these sites. However, they all seem to show normal results. ie they all show my airvpn ip and my airvpn server location...

If its only one airvpn ip / dns address as the result you're good.

 

What browser are you running?

 

If its a geo issue in firefox you can disable that.

Type about:config in the firefox address bar.

Search for geo

Then double click on geo.enabled and set it to false.

[syncswim 1]

Thanks for all the help people! Panic over.

 

Indeed, when I loaded the offending site in FF it immediately asked me if I would share my location. I declined and that same page that before showed my real location now shows the server exit location. Previously I was using Chrome.

 

Out of interest, I'd be interested to know why some of these sites mentioned in this thread show the location of my chosen server 'Nashira' as being in Switzerland, when it's supposed to be UK? It's absolutely not a problem, because I can successfully access content which is geo-restricted to the UK. I just wonder how it's possible.

[Gaechka 7]

Out of interest, I'd be interested to know why some of these sites mentioned in this thread show the location of my chosen server 'Nashira' as being in Switzerland, when it's supposed to be UK? It's absolutely not a problem, because I can successfully access content which is geo-restricted to the UK. I just wonder how it's possible.

 

I guess that different services/sites use different geolocation databases. Google/Youtube for instance is always messes up with AirVPN servers locations.

 

There is a discussion of a similar question here: https://airvpn.org/topic/12174-nihal-server-after-2-months-still-portuguese-instead-of-spanish/ 

[tankzilla 0]

Just dont share geolocation with google in firefox there is popup with question "do you want to share your location?" - select no and everything back to normal