When I connected to the “fastest server” this morning, it appeared at first to connect me to a US server in Chicago. Then I visited a sports site and got the European version. Odd. So I went to check browserleaks, and lo and behold, for some reason or another I was in Czechia (is it still called the Czech Republic?). Anyway, I tried a few others in that range and they all go there. Also, I’ve mentioned in a couple places before, but various US-TX servers also act like they’re in Europe, even though they do initially appear to be in the US, because even though browserleaks shows the Texas ones as a US IP, the network shows some European company so some sites treat them like Europe.
I rarely trust those geo location services. Best way to get an idea of where the server actually is, is to do a traceroute and look at the hostnames that come up. Some ISPs use airport codes in their hostnames. The joys of IPv4 exhaustion.
That said, they still mess with the versions of sites I get. If I choose a US server, I want to know I’m going to get the US version of a site.
If I choose a US server, I want to know I’m going to get the US version of a site.
Which is not necessarily something that Proton (or any other VPN provider) can impact.
These geo location services are not always accurate; keep that in mind.
They are shit and often lagging several weeks behind changes in the registries when ip ranges are being sold to providers in other countries.
If an ISP is buying an ip range that was formerly used in a country like ruzzia or Cuba the geo location services may take months to change their databases.