OPNsense Forum
English Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: RNHurt on January 31, 2022, 11:36:36 am
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So, I have a pretty generic OPNSense installation; no weird plugins, no VPN connections, just a normal household LAN/WAN config. Recently (in the past year?) I've noticed that most sites think I'm in Houston, TX for some reason (ie. Accuweather & Lowes) Even Apple presents me with a map of Texas whenever I need to authenticate a connection (buying something on the Apple store).
This happens on two different computers (Linux & Mac) with multiple browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome) even in "private" mode. I checked my IP address with several online "checkers" (ie. MaxMind, etc.) and they all get my location correct. I've reached out to my ISP to see if there is some problem on their end.
Then I thought, "could this be a setting in OPNSense?" I don't think so but I'm getting a bit desperate. Is there something in OPNSense that fakes geolocation? Maybe some sort of privacy setting or filter?
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Not by default. You definitively see your WAN IP address on OPN as the one used by the ip location checkers, like https://www.iplocation.net/ , https://whatismyipaddress.com/ , etc.?
If the wan ip is the one shown there and is in the right location then it leaves the ip change to the computers. Maybe they are the ones presenting a different ip. That would normally be a vpn app on them or smard dns, that sort of thing. I can't tell about Apple ithingies, they do weird stuff.
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Thanks for the response. My ISP said that nothing on their side is doing it. However, they are reselling AT&T gigabit fiber service and it might have something to do with AT&T being headquartered in Texas. Maybe?
It's just really weird that all 3 systems are responding the same way. There is no VPN or anything else that really ties them together. It just kinda feels like some sort of privacy setting somewhere. You know "Hey, tell everyone that I'm in TX. Thanx!" Maybe I turned it on somewhere and forgot to turn it off. Maybe my DNS setting is doing something funny??? I'm using 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4 and UnboundDNS, so that doesn't seem weird.
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It's farily easy to see if you can get to use those machines (Linux, Macs). Just go to one of those "what's my ip" websites and see if they appear as the same ip as the wan on OPNSense. They should match but importantly that public ip should be in the same region you are in but it doesn't have to be spot on. That's because large ISPs have multiple border routers or BRAS'es https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_remote_access_server (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_remote_access_server)
Having re-read your original post however I see that you have already checked your location and it appears correct. So it sounds like there are services misinterpreting your location from your ip.
Hopefully it's a temporary problem but seems to be _not_ at your end. Assuming you are not that far from Huston, Texas :)