Why does my geolocation indicate that I’m not using VPN even when I’m connected?

If you use Whatismyipaddress.com (or other W3C geo-api enabled websites) to validate that you are connected to PSVPN, you may be surprised when the site indicates that you aren’t connected to a VPN. Don’t worry.

The information provided by these sites can be misleading. If you have a computer/smart phone/tablet that has GPS capabilities and you are allowing GeoLocation, your device’s GPS location will be used to locate you independent of your IP address. In other words, the VPN might be working and successfully hiding your IP address, but sites like whatismyipaddress.com use your geolocation to locate you temporarily. You can read more about this at http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html.

We recommend that you NOT use whatismyipaddress.com or similar sites to check whether or not you are connected to PSVPN. Instead, check https://mail.psmail.net/vpncheck to reliable validate that your VPN connection has been established and is working correctly. Further, we also suggest that you don’t even visit sites like whatismyipaddress.com. They use a variety of mechanisms to track your location, and though they can be convenient for some needs, they also present a legitimate privacy concern.

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