Why Websites Show the Wrong Server Location When You Use a VPN
There are many reasons why someone might use a VPN, but most often, it’s to conceal your real geographic location or prevent websites from tracking your online activity. It can also be a way to get around location-based restrictions that stop you from accessing certain websites or platforms.
When you connect to a VPN server in the United States, websites are supposed to detect that your online traffic is originating from the U.S. That way, you can access online platforms that use IP filters to block non-U.S. traffic or circumvent regional censorship when travelling outside the U.S. But if you connect to a VPN server in the United States while you’re vacationing in Mexico, and a website thinks your IP address is from Brazil, that might not solve your problem and may even add unnecessary complications.
If you’ve encountered something similar with your VPN provider, there are several fixes you can try. Depending on why your IP location is being misinterpreted, one of these should help you access the internet from the server location of your choice.
Credit: Surfshark
Why websites misread your VPN location
IP geolocation isn’t infallible. Websites rely on third-party IP databases to look up your location based on your current IP address. Maxmind, which has one of the largest such databases in existence, claims that its GeoIP products have a 99.8% accuracy. Lesser-known providers with smaller IP databases may be far less accurate.
Websites can also use more than just your IP address to estimate your location. For example, they can send WebRTC requests to your browser or directly query your device’s GPS. Moreover, VPN providers often have physical servers in one country while their IP addresses are registered to another country, and this discrepancy can also create issues. Let’s take a closer look at each of these problems individually, so you can find the fix that works best for you.
WebRTC leaks expose your real IP address
WebRTC is an open-source technology that lets your browser reduce latency when engaged in high-bandwidth tasks like streaming or video calls. Based on the IETF standard RFC 8828, it lets a website choose between your VPN server and your real IP address so it can establish the quickest path to transmit large amounts of data and reduce wait times or buffering.
But the catch with WebRTC is that it exposes both your VPN server and ISP-assigned addresses to websites, which can reveal your real IP location and cause websites to reject your VPN server country. Firefox now comes with built-in protections to prevent WebRTC leaks, while Chrome and Edge support third-party extensions like WebRTC Control that you can use to eliminate these issues. To check if your browser is leaking your real IP address during WebRTC requests, you can use a free tool like BrowserLeaks.
DNS lookups point to the wrong country
Even when a browser isn’t leaking your real IP address, DNS resolvers may fetch inaccurate location information if their nearest servers are too far from your current location. For example, a user in São Paulo may be geolocated to Chile when using Google Public DNS because that’s where Google’s nearest resolvers are located.
If you toggle on DNS leak protection in your VPN app, this will force websites to use your VPN’s resolver to perform DNS lookups. That often solves the problem, but, again, you can confirm the fix worked through a service like BrowserLeaks or IPLeaks.
Outdated databases point to wrong locations
Websites rely on IP databases like Maxmind, IP2Location, IPinfo, etc. to look up your exact location, but these databases get outdated quickly and need constant updating. Most of these databases also correct errors on request, but that takes some time. Also, each website has its own rules for how often it queries IP databases for updates.
Even when locations are updated in the actual database, a website may be sitting with outdated information unless it actively has refreshed it recently. MaxMind recommends doing this at least twice a week, but that’s ultimately up to the specific website.
Virtual servers don’t match their physical location
VPN providers often rely on virtual servers that use IP addresses registered in a different region than the server’s physical location. For example, ExpressVPN notes that it serves IP addresses in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela through servers located physically in Brazil.
While this is usually to help with the lack of local infrastructure or strict surveillance laws in the region, many databases and analytics tools will flag the discrepancy for websites, leading to confusion and inconsistency regarding your actual server location. In these cases, your best bet is to switch your VPN server or use a dedicated IP address by signing up for a paid add-on for your VPN.
Credit: IPConfig.co
How to check for IP location mismatches for free
Before investing in a specific solution, it’s better to do a thorough lookup to make sure why your IP address is pointing to the wrong location and whether a WebRTC or DNS issue, virtual servers, or something else is the cause. Here’s how I’d go about it, step by step:
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We’ll start by recording your baseline IP address, country, city, and ASN. With your VPN disconnected, navigate to IPConfig.co on your browser to grab your default IP details. I like this tool because it’s free and uses echoip to pull your location data straight from Maxmind. If you prefer using Terminal instead of your browser, you can also run curl ifconfig.co/json to grab these details in plain text format.
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Now connect your VPN server. Then visit IPConfig.co again to note down the changed details.
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Make sure the Country and Timezone fields match your current VPN server location. Also make sure the ASN (organization) field does not list your home ISP.
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In case these details do not match your VPN server, run a WebRTC leak test and a DNS leak test using BrowserLeaks. If either of these tests doesn’t return your VPN server’s IP address, you’ve found your culprit.
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If both the leak tests come back clean but a specific site still gets your location wrong, the issue is likely originating from an outdated database or virtual server.
There’s no surefire way to solve IP location mismatches for good. But if it happens often enough to disrupt your internet use, you can consider switching to a different VPN server and getting a browser add-on that prevents WebRTC leaks. If that doesn’t work, I’d consider buying a dedicated IP address that isn’t based on a virtual server. While many IP databases like MaxMind or IP2Location also have ways to request a location correction, that takes a while to go through and isn’t worth the effort unless it’s a permanent IP address registered through your ISP.
