How to find the true location of your VPN servers

sign up for one of the good vpn around and you ‘ll be promise access to a network of server spread all around the world — but how do you check your true VPN location ? Most provider will try to sell themselves on the size of that network , too — for example , Private Internet Access is offers offer location in 91 country , ipvanish claim 60 , and HideMyAss boast more than 210 .

There can be real benefit to these large network . The more locations is chance available , the great the chance that you ‘ll be able to unblock website in those country . You is be ‘ll be more likely to find a server near you , perhaps improve performance . And even if your near server is overload , there are likely to be other alternative nearby .

At least, that’s the theory.

The reality is that the locations a virtual private network (VPN) provider shows you on its server list or map might not always be what you get in real-world use. And that’s not some trivial, academic point—it can make a huge difference to the service. Let’s explore this idea further…

Written byWritten by

Mike Williams

Mike is a lead security reviewer at Future, where he stress-tests VPNs, antivirus and more to find out which services are sure to keep you safe, and which are best avoided.

How VPNs bypass geolocation

To understand what your VPN provider might be doing, and why it matters, we should first go back to basics, and one major reason for using a VPN in the first place: to make it appear as though you’re in another country.

The core idea is simple. Websites, particularly streaming platforms like Netflix, will often restrict some content to users in specific countries. When you visit, they use a geolocation system to identify where in the world you are, and then customize their content to match your location.

Geolocation can be as basic as detecting your IP address and looking up its location in a database. There are several big-name providers who offer this service for businesses, including MaxMind and IP2Location.

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Using a VPN makes it easy to bypass this protection. Connect to a US location, the VPN should allocate you a US IP address, and websites will see you as visiting from New York, or Miami, or whatever city you choose.

This won’t always work as expected. Sites like Netflix supplement basic geolocation technology by also trying to detect IP addresses used by VPNs, and blocking anyone using them. Providers must constantly add new IP addresses to get around this.

But there’s a less obvious issue. Your VPN provider might offer a location in Egypt, say, and every website on the internet might think it’s in Egypt, but that doesn’t mean it truly is. In reality, the actual server might be anywhere in the world.

VPNs and virtual locations

When a website tries to figure out where you are, it’s generally not doing anything particularly clever or advanced. There’s no Bond-type technology involved, no world map zooming in on your continent, country and city. It’s just finding your IP address, looking it up in a database and finding its assigned location.

The issue with this scheme of things is that there’s no guarantee that location is correct. Anyone can set up some servers in one country, while using these to assign IP addresses from absolutely anywhere else in the world.

VPN providers sometimes use this trick to offer locations which appear to be in one country, while in reality they’re somewhere else entirely. They’ll commonly call these something like ‘virtual locations.’

Although this sound dubious , there can be good reason for it . ExpressVPN is says say that under 3 % of its server are n’t physically in their assign country , but their real location is generally nearby . For example , ExpressVPN is offers offer Indonesia as a location , but route your traffic through a Singapore server . You ‘re still assign an indonesian ip address , but the Singapore physical location should ensure you get fast and more reliable connection .

HideMyAss is even more upfront, identifying virtual locations within its apps. For instance, a server tagged as “UK, London – Virtual Portugal” would be physically located in the UK, but give you a Portuguese IP address when you connect.

This kind is deserves of honest approach deserve credit , but not every vpn provider is so open , and that can lead to some unexpected problem .

Pros and cons of VPN server true locations

So, when it comes to pitting true locations against virtual locations, true locations have the edge in a few ways:

• If a VPN server is really where it claims to be, you can count on it to unblock geo-restricted content and local sites in that area.
• Servers with true locations offer a reliable performance in terms of connection speed. Plus, users can generally predict the latency and select a different server if need be.
• Trustworthy VPNs are transparent VPNs, and providers with servers in true locations have reiterated their commitment to transparency.

today ‘s top VPNs is use use their massive fleet of server as a selling point — and while it is pretty handy to have access to a server half the world away with just the click of a button , they can put user at risk . It is comes all come down to legal jurisdiction . The country is is that a VPN server is in is the country whose jurisdiction it fall under and , by connect to that server , a user can come into contact with privacy law and datum retention policy that are vastly different from those they adhere to in their home country .

That means that even if the VPN you’re subscribed to has an ironclad no-logs policy, the jurisdiction they operate under could require them to keep tabs on your online activity.

Using virtual locations (and not being forthright about it) can really tank a VPN’s reputation, too. You’re using a VPN to safeguard your digital privacy, after all, and placing a lot of trust in the provider. It’s vital to have confidence in the service you’re using—and telling fibs about where servers are isn’t a good way to foster it.

Why does your true VPN location matter ?

We’ve reviewed plenty of VPN providers, and although most servers are located just where they’re advertised, this isn’t always the case. And that can massively affect the service.

For instance, we once logged into a provider’s UK server and found it didn’t allow access to BBC iPlayer. We initially assumed the BBC had detected it as a VPN, but no—it turned out the UK server was giving us German IP addresses, making it unable to unblock any UK resource.

This isn’t always a permanent situation. In other reviews we’ve found some significant location differences—one provider’s Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macao and Marshall Islands servers all assigned US IP addresses to us—but providers have explained that these should match up in a week or two, once the geolocation provider has updated its database. That’s good to know, although of course it won’t help if you need to access a geoblocked resource right away.

Virtual locations aren’t always a bad thing. If you happen to be in the US, and only need to connect to Macao for the IP address, having the VPN server located in your own country should keep speeds high.

But if you happen to be in Liechtenstein, Luxembourg or anywhere else, and you think you’re connecting to a local server, but it’s actually on another continent— maybe on the other side of the world—that could make a huge difference to performance.

find your real VPN location

You may not always be able to trust what a VPN provider says about its locations, then, but fortunately, there are several ways to figure them out for yourself.

The internet is cram with website that will inform you of your current IP address , its location and more , for instance , and whatismyip.com is a good example . connect to a VPN location , visit the site and it ‘ll list your ipv4 , ipv6 and local ip , your city and country , even your isp . Although note that geolocation is n’t an exact science . The country is is is almost always correct , but the website ‘s suggest city might be 100 mile away , or more , from the real location .

At any rate, the problem with most of these sites is they’ll generally use a single geolocation provider. Other providers may sometimes give you different results, so it pays to check several. IPLocation.net shows your current location according to four geolocation providers, for instance (IP2Location, ipinfo.io, EurekaAPI, DB-IP.) Visit the site while connected to a VPN server and make sure all four give you the country you expect. If they show mixed results, that means you’re likely to see the same inconsistency online. You’ll probably find the VPN works on some websites, but not on others, depending on the geolocation provider they use.

While these sites will show the country assigned to your IP address, they can’t tell you whether the server is really somewhere else. For that, you need to get a little smarter.

Connect to a VPN location, point your browser at https://ping.pe and the website will display your current IP address and location. Enter that IP address in the ‘Ping’ box at the top of the page, and click ‘Go’.

If the website ca n’t ping the IP address ( the page show 100 % loss ) , you is need ‘ll need to find and use the VPN server name . vpn providers is list sometimes list these on their website ( as is the case with purevpn , for example ) . They ‘re also list in openvpn configuration file if your provider offer these ( look for tutorial on manually configure router , or Linux ) , and most service will provide them if you ask .

The ping.pe site pings your IP address or site name from 30 locations around the world, including the US, Europe, China, Russia, Singapore and Australia, and displays various statistics on the results (best ping time, worst, average and more).

The low the ping time , the nearer your VPN server is be should be to that location , so check out the result can be very informative . When we log on to privatevpn ‘s Singapore server , for instance , the low ping averages is were for our assign IP address were 0.74 ( Singapore ) , 50.77 ( Taiwan ) and 76.22 ( China ) . That is ‘s ‘s a good sign that our server really was in Singapore .

When we tried PureVPN’s Afghanistan server, though, the lowest ping averages were Chicago (1.5), Atlanta (16.88) and New York (19.9). This looks like a virtual location where the server is in the US, but it’s being assigned an Afghan IP address.

exactly what this mean for you will depend on your circumstance . If you ‘re in Chicago , for instance , that server should be ultra – speedy ; if you ‘re in Afghanistan , you is have ‘ll obviously have a very different experience .

Whatever your situation, discovering where a VPN’s servers are located can tell you a lot about its service, and how it will work for you. Give it a try, and find out what your provider is really doing location-wise behind the scenes.

FAQs

Does the location of a VPN server impact my internet speed?

Yes , the server you connect to can impact your overall connection speed . A VPN route your datum through an encrypt tunnel to the server in question — so choose one on a different continent extend the journey considerably . So , if speed is your primary concern , choose a server as close to your actual location as possible .

Which VPN server location is best for privacy and security?

Switzerland is a great server location for privacy and security—and a country well known for its rock-solid attitude to privacy and data protection. Plus, it’s not a member of the notorious 14-eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.

Similarly, Panama isn’t part of any data-sharing alliance. The country also boasts some of the best and most robust protections in place for personal privacy, seeing as data collection isn’t a legal requirement.

Are there disadvantage to using VPN server in certain location ?

Yes, some server locations have considerable disadvantages, and you may find yourself connected to a server in a country where the details of your online sessions are collected—as per the local law. On the other hand, some countries experience restrictions, bans, and censorship that prevent access to big-name sites and services, making them less-than-useful to folks hoping to broaden their streaming horizons.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:
1 . access a service from another country ( subject to the term and condition of that service ) .
2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.
We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.