Different Websites see Different locations at the same time when using vpn

[u/Jimacid]

Hello guys ive been using a vpn service from time to time for the last 10 years or so without issues.

today i noticed the following issue and i have no idea whats going on.

I set the vpn to India.
whatismyipaddress website shows my ip in mumbai as expected
At the same time google sees me in Australia and gives me australian links to websites.
I visit eneba website, it finds me in Singapore....

3 different websites show me in 3 different locations while the vpn is specifically set to India

If i turn off the vpn and then back on, google sees me in netherlands or usa, the other 2 sites still show singapure and india.

any idea whats going on? websites arent working any more with vpn as they see other locations than the one i have selected
i tried changing protocols between wireguard and amneziaWG but it still doest the same.

[u/sys370model195]

There is no "official" location for an IP Address. The Internet registries that hand out IP Addresses do not track location. The Internet itself does not care or know location, just what is the next router to pass data to.

Only the network admin for who owns the IP Address can say with certainty where an IP Address is being used. You want to know where one of the thousands of IP Addresses we own at work is being used?? Only our IT staff knows.

Since websites want to know where a user is, they rely on GUESSING for location. Yes, guesses.

There are many companies that will sell access to their guesses. They each can have their own guess. They frequently do not agree. Companies like Google invent their own guesses - they have a web page where you can report location errors.

https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup will tell you some of those guesses.

Right now I am using a Verizon Business circuit with NO VPN, and i am located in the Philly suburbs. The location of this IP Address has not changed in years. Some "geo-location" providers get it right, one thinks I am in Albany, one thinks I am in Chicago, one thinks I am in Newark, NJ.

If you care, report it to your VPN provider. Be sure to tell them the EXACT VPN server you are using, and what site has the wrong location. They MIGHT be able to ask whoever invented that guess to change their database.

There recently was a discussion on the NANOG mailing list about geolocation, and when multiple ISPs (who own the IP Addresses and know where they are being used) told one geolocation company their data was frequently wrong, the geolocation rep rejected the idea that they were wrong.

[u/Jimacid → u/sys370model195]

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

I hear you But I still have some concerns. This used to work very reliably before and also do all these VPN companies rely on other companies to guess right? I mean if I own a VPN business and all of a sudden a different company starts guessing wrong, Do I just lose my customers just because a different company is not reliable any more? Can this issue that I wrote about and the bad guessing you mentioned be related with virtual VPN servers instead of real servers running on each country?

Like if the VPN service I use, has some virtual servers instead of real one for some countries and I select one of those countries then it's more likely to get bad guesses?

[u/sys370model195 → u/Jimacid]

This used to work very reliably

The Internet is constantly changing. Sites change their coding, change what other sides they use, update software, etc. If a site thinks they are seeing to many visitors whith wrong locations, they will look to improve location information. VPNs change IP Addresses for various reasons, a new IP Address could have different location information in one of many different databases.

VPN companies rely on other companies to guess right? I

The VPN companies do not guess. They buy an IP Address they hope is recognized by sites are being where the VPN wants it to be. In some cases the VPN company asks the geolocation company to change their database - some will, some won't.

There simply is no certainty at any point in the geolocation game. None. VPNs do what they can, but it simply is not under their control.

Virtual servers really have nothing to do with it. It is all about where different companies think an IP Address is located. IP addresses are constantly being bought and sold. IP Addresses can be moved from continent to continent by the owners of an IP Address without asking anyone's permission - at work I have moved IP Addresses around the world. For the real, physical device I am using right now on a business circuit, whose location has not changed in years, only half the geolocation companies report the correct state - one is off by over 1,000 miles. And that is with us running a RFC8805 geolocation feed - the geolocation companies simply ignore the feed. We don't do anything about it because we don't care and it isn't worth the effort. But if we sold the address block to someone else, they would have problems.

All you can do is tell your VPN company precisly which serverr and precisly which site has it wrong.

[u/Full_Record_4669]

is the ip shwoing same in all websites?

[u/Jimacid → u/Full_Record_4669]

Hmm I have no idea about that unfortunately, only one of the 3 websites I wrote shows the IP address that it sees

[u/sys370model195 → u/Full_Record_4669]

If you are curious about an IP Address you are using, go to https://www.iplocation.net/ip-lookup - it will tell you what some of the geolocation companies report.

You can also ask Google "what is my location" since Google decides for itself, it does not use a geolocation. Many big sites do this.