Q: What is this page useful for?
This page is intended to show what you "look like" to most servers on the
Internet. It is particularly useful in conjunction with the
tor project and VPNs to identify
where you appear to be located, what your hostname and IP appear to be, and so
forth. It is also useful for testing proxy servers and other anonymizing
technologies or just to see what other servers can tell about your Internet
connection and location. I set it up to be my default home page, so I knew
at a glance exactly what the state of my connection was.
Q: How accurate is this information supposed to be?
This site uses the least intrusive and most obvious means to identify this
information. Not only is its accuracy not guaranteed, but the data
collection mechanisms are easily gamed using proxy servers,
tor, or VPNs.
Maxmind's free service is also not perfectly accurate, so do not be surprised if you are geolocated to the wrong city.
For more information, see the Maxmind website.
Please note that if you are accessing this site on a mobile device with a GPS unit, it is important to understand that your putative location is determined via a database lookup on your IP, not by accessing GPS data.
