IP Lookup
What the IP lookup tool reports for an address, and the common reasons its answer disagrees with what a website thinks about you.
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The IP Lookup tool is at /tools/ip-lookup. Given an address, it reports where that address appears to be located.
What it reports
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Country | The country the address is registered in, with its flag |
| City | The city the address is associated with |
| Timezone | The timezone attributed to the address |
| Currency | The currency associated with that location |
Why you use it
The tool answers the question a target is asking: where does this request appear to come from?
Three practical uses.
Confirming geo-targeting worked. The generator's targeting expresses intent. Looking up the Exit IP from a check tells you what you actually got. See Geo-Targeting.
Matching a profile to an address. If a browser profile claims a timezone or locale, the address should agree with it. A mismatch is visible to the target and is worth catching before it matters.
Understanding localised results. Prices, rankings and availability change with location. Confirming the location is the first step in explaining an unexpected result.
When the answer disagrees with what a site thinks
Four common causes, in order of likelihood.
The site is using a different database. Geolocation databases disagree with each other, particularly for addresses near borders and for mobile ranges. Two tools can give two countries for the same address.
The address is mobile. Mobile addresses are frequently reassigned and some ranges geolocate to the carrier's registered location rather than the subscriber's. A mobile address is often "correctly" located in a city the user has never visited.
The site is using more than the address. A site can combine the address with browser signals, account history or a VPN or proxy detection signal. It may conclude something the address alone does not say.
Your request is not going where you think. If the lookup reports your own home address, the proxy is not in use. That is the case worth acting on immediately: check the client with Proxy Troubleshooting.
What it cannot tell you
Two limits worth knowing.
It does not measure reputation. Whether an address is treated as clean or suspicious is a separate question from where it sits. A correctly located address can still carry a poor reputation.
It does not see your whole setup. It reports an address. A browser leaking its real address through WebRTC is a different problem, addressed by the WebRTC Leak Test.