Some websites know your real IP address!!

[shady_sawyer]

I thought vpn's masked IP's well. But they do have their security flaws. I went to a few sites that actually revealed my real IP. So for all those people who think vpns cover you well dont be too comfortable. The skype registration was one of them so was the PIA vpn's home page. There were no cache or cookies or none of that in my browser. I also made sure the vpn ip address was working. So how is this possible?

 

[Tsavo]

Disable Java. They are grabbing your IP address using Java.

 

[shady_sawyer]

Disable Java. They are grabbing your IP address using Java.

It doesnt work. I tried it. Disabled java plugins in firefox

 

[BrightCandle]

You mean your internal network IP or the IP address you use on the internet?

Because your internet IP address is always present to anyone you connect to with TCP/IP. Its right there in every connection and every website can get hold of it. A program like skype actually has to do an internet connection just to determine your IP as the IP of your machine isn't the one used on the internet due to the NAT on your router.

 

[shady_sawyer]

You mean your internal network IP or the IP address you use on the internet?

Because your internet IP address is always present to anyone you connect to with TCP/IP. Its right there in every connection and every website can get hold of it. A program like skype actually has to do an internet connection just to determine your IP as the IP of your machine isn't the one used on the internet due to the NAT on your router.

IP address that I use on the internet.

 

[PliotronX]

I think it has to do with the way internet connections are handled with VPN's. Don't quote me on this though it's piqued my interest, but I think only network shares and whatnot go over the VPN so general traffic to the internet is still going directly. That's my theory anyway.

 

[Fardringle]

A VPN is not intended to hide your IP address. It is intended to secure the data that you send across the connection.

 

[alkemyst]

It may also be your client reporting it to your browser and not necessarily that they are seeing it.

 

[sourceninja]

It could also be that you are not tunneling everything though the vpn or more likely your browser is putting your IP in the headers.

 

[Mushkins]

I think it has to do with the way internet connections are handled with VPN's. Don't quote me on this though it's piqued my interest, but I think only network shares and whatnot go over the VPN so general traffic to the internet is still going directly. That's my theory anyway.

It's entirely based on how the VPN Server is configured. Most consumer VPN services enable split tunneling, which essentially lets your PC be on both your local network and your VPN at the same time (to access local resources like printers). In this configuration, only traffic that *needs* to go through the VPN, like connections to your companies resources and servers, is routed through the VPN. All other connections will try to go through your normal connection first.

No split tunneling means for all intents and purposes you are now a member of the remote network, all traffic is directed through the remote network, and you are subject to whatever access policies are configured for that network (web filtering, etc). This will also cut off access to your local network printers and local network resources while the VPN is active, because they are *not* on the remote network.

Like others have said, VPN is *NOT* a privacy-oriented service, it is designed to be a secure connection to internal resources from an outside device, period.