Tor Browser and IP Location

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Hi, I’m still new to Tor (just 3 days in), so please go easy on me! I’m trying to understand if this is a bug or just something I’ve misunderstood.

I noticed something strange: When I launch Tor Browser and visit iplocation.net, it shows a Tor IP in France (as expected). But if I refresh the page 2–3 times, the IP suddenly changes — sometimes it switches to an IP in my actual country (based on my ISP), or shows somewhere else like the USA.

Then, no matter how many times I refresh, it sticks to that new location (like California, USA). But Tor still shows the circuit as being in France. This is confusing — it looks like the circuit hasn’t changed, but the IP result clearly has.

This also affects websites that block U.S. traffic — they detect me as being in the U.S. and block access, even though I’m using only French nodes.

My setup:

  • Operating System: Windows 7
  • Tor Browser version: 13.5.16 (64-bit)
  • Tor Browser Security Level: Standard

What I tried:

  • Killed IPv6 on my system, router, and inside Tor.
  • Edited my torrc file like this (see below):
objectivec

CopyEdit

EntryNodes {FR}

MiddleNodes {FR}

ExitNodes {FR}

StrictNodes 1

ExcludeNodes {??},{US},{CN},{RU},{NL},{DE},{A1},{GB},{CA},{AU},{IT},{ES},{SE},{NO},{IL},{IN},{JP},{KR}

ClientUseIPv6 0

DisableNetwork 1
  • Reinstalled Tor and restarted multiple times.
  • Also changed settings in about:config:
    • Disabled WebRTC: media.peerconnection.enabled=false
    • Disabled geolocation: geo.enabled=false
    • Disabled WebGL: webgl.disabled=true
    • Disabled canvas access: canvas.blocked=true
    • Disabled sensors: device.sensors.enabled=false
    • Enabled fingerprinting resistance: privacy.resistFingerprinting=true
    • Enabled first-party isolation: privacy.firstparty.isolate=true

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Launch Tor Browser and visit iplocation.net.
  2. Notice the initial IP location is France (as expected).
  3. Refresh the page 2–3 times.
  4. The IP location changes to something else, often showing my actual country or even USA.
  5. After this, no matter how many times I refresh, the IP stays in the new location (e.g., California, USA), even though the circuit still shows France.

My question:

  • Is this normal behavior, or am I doing something wrong?
  • Is Tor leaking my real IP or location somehow?
  • Could this be a bug, or is it a known issue?
  • Could websites like iplocation.net be leaking data in a way that Tor can’t protect against?

I’d really appreciate it if someone with more experience could help me out and confirm whether this is a known issue, a misconfiguration, or if it’s related to something like IP address leakage.

Thanks in advance! Just trying to use Tor safely and learn more about it.

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2

What you see is normal. I set my exit to fr and the circuit is indeed fr using that link you gave. The second and subsequent time it is USA.

Leave the circuit box open on your link and you will see it changing. Mine went all over the world then settled in France. It does this as it is getting all those ads.

Look at the bottom left of the screen and you will see all those URL it uses to fetch these ads. Tor uses a different circuit for each.

Windows 11, vanilla Tor 14.5.1 except for ExitNodes {fr}

Windows 7 quoi ???

I forget to mention. Use ip-api.com there are no ads and you will see your IP.

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3

Still the issue will remain. iplocation will see USA. As all other sites that don’t allow USA visitors, they right away identify me as USA, and Ban the access! As I read more about it, the issue within cloudflare, need to somehow mask it… otherwise the sites that uses cloudflare and have restrictions based on where cloudflare locator, you will not be able to access the sites.

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4

On that site at one point the circuit settled in NL then after a while SE then after more time RO. On that page I see location San Francisco USA but the ad on the actual page is Dutch. Why would it show an ad in Dutch if it thought I was in The US. The request for that ad went through NL. As I write this, it is now IT.

Have you tried with the standard torrc with just Exitnodes {fr}

Yeah Cloudflare returns site results from the closest node to the exit node but maybe you are blocked just because you are on Tor. Many sites block Tor completely. Where are you trying to go so I can try it. Forget about leaking your location. The exit node has no way of knowing the origin of the user. That’s the design of Tor otherwise all the bad players and abusers would not use it.

Try irs dot gov even with Exitnodes {us}

Banks do that also.

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