How IPNixa checks work

Every IPNixa result comes from a specific measurement or public data source. This page explains where each result comes from, what it can and cannot tell you, and what we keep.

Measured, looked up or calculated

Each result on IPNixa belongs to one of three kinds. Knowing which kind you are reading tells you how far to trust it.

• Measured: your browser or our server observes something directly, such as the address your request arrived from or how long a request took. It is true for that moment and that path.
• Looked up: a public database answers for an address or a name, such as a regional internet registry record or a DNS answer. It is only as current as that database.
• Calculated: the result is computed in your browser from what you type, such as a subnet range or a decimal form of an address. Nothing is measured or sent.

Your IP address and approximate location

Your public address is the source address of the request your browser sends to IPNixa, as reported by Cloudflare, which hosts the site. The country, region, city, postal code, time zone, coordinates and network number (ASN) with its organization name come from the metadata Cloudflare attaches to that same request.

To show both address families, your browser also requests Cloudflare’s trace page once over IPv4 (1.1.1.1) and once over IPv6 (2606:4700:4700::1111). An address appears only when that request succeeds. A blocked or timed-out request is reported as unavailable, not as proof that your network has no IPv4 or IPv6.

Location values describe a network, not a device or a person. The city is often where your provider’s gateway is, and a VPN or privacy relay shows its exit server instead. No GPS permission is requested. See why IP location can be wrong.

Looking up another IP address

When you enter an address in the IP lookup, our server asks the public ipquery.io service for its location and network fields. The registered owner and abuse contact come from the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP), queried through rdap.org, which forwards to the regional internet registry that holds the address block. Registry answers are cached at the edge for up to one day.

Geolocation services and registries can disagree, because each keeps its own records and updates them on its own schedule. The address you enter travels in the request body, not in the page URL.

DNS records and reverse DNS

The DNS lookup sends each query from our server to two public DNS-over-HTTPS resolvers, Cloudflare (cloudflare-dns.com) and Google Public DNS (dns.google), so you can compare their answers and remaining cache times (TTL). The reverse DNS lookup asks for the PTR record of an address and then checks whether that name points back to the same address.

Answers show what those two resolvers return at that moment. They do not reveal which resolver your own device uses, and a recently changed record can still appear in its old form until the cached copy expires.

Open ports and website headers

The open port checker opens one TCP connection from Cloudflare’s network to the port you choose on the address your request came from. It cannot be pointed at any other address. The result is open when the connection is accepted, closed when it is refused, and timed out when nothing answers within four seconds. UDP ports are not tested.

A closed or timed-out port does not show which device blocked it. Your router, a firewall, the device itself or carrier-grade NAT at your provider can each produce the same result.

The HTTP headers checker requests the page you name once from our server, following up to three redirects and checking that every hop is a public address. It reports the security headers in the final response. Private and local addresses are refused.

Latency, region timing and TLS

The ping and latency test sends one warm-up request and then eight timed HTTP requests from your browser to the nearest Cloudflare location serving IPNixa. It reports the median of the eight timings, and jitter as the average change between consecutive timings.

Region timing measures requests to public Amazon Web Services regional endpoints. After one warm-up request, it keeps the fastest of three timings for each region.

These are HTTP timings, not ICMP ping. They include browser and network overhead, so they are usually a few milliseconds higher than a ping to the same place, and Wi-Fi or other traffic on your network can raise them.

The TLS version check reads the TLS version and key-exchange group from Cloudflare’s trace page. It describes the secure connection your browser negotiated with Cloudflare, not with every website you visit.

VPN, WebRTC and browser checks

VPN network signals compares your address with two public lists: the Tor Project’s exit addresses and Apple’s published iCloud Private Relay egress ranges. The lists are bundled with the site and refreshed periodically, so very recent changes may be missing.

Commercial VPN classification is currently disabled. An address that matches no list therefore does not mean that no VPN is in use, and a match describes the address, not the person using it.

The WebRTC and VPN leak test runs in your browser. It asks a public STUN server (Cloudflare’s, plus Google’s for the NAT check) which addresses it can see, then compares them with the address your page request came from.

The browser fingerprint test reads characteristics that your browser exposes to any website, such as screen size, time zone and language, and optionally Canvas and WebGL details. They are read and compared in your browser and are not sent to our server.

Calculators

The subnet calculator, IP converter and IP range to CIDR converter run entirely in your browser. What you type is not sent to IPNixa.

What we keep

We do not keep a database of lookups, entered addresses or user profiles. API requests are rate-limited per network, which means the requesting address is counted briefly by Cloudflare’s rate limiter. Optional rank progress and saved before-and-after comparisons stay in your browser. Details are in the privacy policy.

Accuracy and corrections

Every measured result is one observation, at one moment, from one place. If a result looks wrong, run the check again, read the matching guide, and write to contact@ipnixa.com with the page address, the time of the check and what you expected to see.

We update this page when a data source or a method changes. The visual globe, satellites and scanner scenes on the home page are illustrations and are not part of any measurement.