See the IP address websites see for you, and whether it looks like a home broadband connection or a rented server. Your own address is checked automatically when the page loads, and you can look up any other address as well.
Works with IPv4 (198.51.100.24) and IPv6 (2001:db8::1). Leave the box empty to check your own connection again.
A proxy check looks at the IP address a website sees for you and asks who owns it. Consumer internet providers own home and mobile addresses; hosting companies own the servers that proxies, VPN exits and Tor relays run on. An address on a hosting network is a strong sign traffic passes through an intermediary, and this page names that network and its AS number.
About this tool
What does this tool do?
It reads the IP address your connection presents to the internet, finds the network that owns that address, and checks the network name against a list of hosting, cloud and VPN operators. It then shows the evidence it used: the provider, the organisation the range is registered to, the AS number and the location. For your own address it also compares the time zone that address maps to with the one your computer is set to, because a disagreement between those two is one of the clearest signs that your traffic leaves the internet somewhere other than where you are.
Why is this useful?
Websites treat you differently depending on the address they see. A shop may show different prices, a streaming service may block playback, a bank may ask for extra verification, and a forum may refuse a new account. Nearly all of those decisions rest on one question: does this address belong to a home connection or to a rented server? If you use a VPN, or a work laptop that tunnels through head office, this tells you what those sites are seeing. If you use neither and the answer comes back as a hosting network, something is routing your traffic that you did not set up.
Who uses this tool?
• People behind a VPN or proxy: confirm it is working before logging in to something that matters.
• Anyone blocked with "proxy detected": see what the site is actually reacting to.
• Remote workers: check whether a company laptop routes traffic through the office.
• Site owners and moderators: look up an address from the logs to judge a suspicious signup.
• Privacy-minded users: see the same thing about themselves that every site they visit can already see.
How to use this tool
1. Let the page load. Your own address is looked up automatically, so the first result describes your current connection.
2. Read the status line. "Consumer ISP network" means an ordinary internet provider owns the address; "Hosting or proxy network" means a company that rents out servers does.
3. Check the matched term. When the status is flagged, the exact word that triggered it is shown, so you can weigh the evidence yourself.
4. Look at the time zone line. On your own address, a disagreement between the two zones is a strong hint that traffic is exiting somewhere else.
5. Check any other address by pasting it in and pressing Enter, then use Copy result to paste the whole set of rows into a ticket or an email.
Example: a proxy found, and a clean connection
An address checked with a VPN switched on. Status: hosting or proxy network. Matched term: "m247". IP address: 185.244.212.40. Network operator: M247 Europe SRL. AS number: AS9009. Location: Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. Time zone check: your device says Asia/Dhaka, this address maps to Europe/Amsterdam. The two signals agree with each other: M247 rents ranges to many VPN brands, and a gap of several hours is what you would expect when the exit server is on another continent.
A home broadband line. Status: consumer ISP network. IP address: 103.86.10.77. Network operator: Link3 Technologies Ltd. AS number: AS23688. Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh. Time zone check: Asia/Dhaka on both sides. No hosting term matched, the operator is a residential ISP, and the zones line up, so nothing sits between this browser and the internet.
Where the address a website sees comes from
In every case except the first, the website sees whichever machine spoke to it last. The thick lines mark the encrypted part of the path: a plain proxy encrypts nothing by itself, while a VPN encrypts everything from your device to its server.
Understanding your results
Status
Either "Consumer ISP network" or "Hosting or proxy network". One thing decides it: whether the network name contains a word associated with hosting, cloud or VPN businesses. It is a well-founded hint rather than a verdict, and the word it matched is always shown.
Matched term
The word that caused the flag. A brand name like "digitalocean" or "nordvpn" is conclusive in practice. A broad word like "cloud" or "server" in an otherwise ordinary provider's name is much weaker, and this row exists so you can tell those two apart.
IP address
The address being described, marked IPv4 or IPv6, and noted as your own where it is. Behind a VPN this is the address every website records instead of your real one.
Network operator and organisation
The company carrying the traffic, and the company the address range is registered to. On a home line both are usually your provider. On a VPN exit the operator is often a wholesale host while the organisation is the brand renting the range, which is why both are shown.
AS number
The permanent identifier of the network that announces this address to the rest of the internet. Names change and AS numbers rarely do, which makes this the right field to quote in an abuse report or a support ticket.
Location
Where the address is registered or routed, not where the hardware sits. For a home line it is usually right to the city or region. For a VPN exit it tells you where the server is, not where you are.
Time zone check
Shown only for your own address, because it needs both halves of a comparison: the zone your operating system reports and the zone the address maps to. Agreement means your connection leaves the internet roughly where you are. Disagreement means it does not, and this is the one check on the page that catches a proxy whose network name gives nothing away. Different zone names with the same UTC offset count as agreement. On any other address there is nothing on your side to compare against, so the row is labelled simply Time zone and reports the zone that address maps to.
What this tool cannot tell you
• It cannot read the headers your browser sent. Classifying a proxy as transparent, anonymous or elite depends on headers such as Via and the Forwarded family, and only the receiving server sees those. JavaScript in a page cannot, so any page claiming that classification is guessing.
• There is no risk score and no blacklist history. A number out of 100, or a claim about how long an address has been "flagged", needs a commercial abuse database behind it. This page has none, so it does not pretend to.
• A hosting network is not proof of a proxy. Cloud desktops, company networks, carrier-grade NAT and web crawlers all produce the same signal. The tool reports it and leaves the conclusion to you.
• It cannot separate a proxy from a VPN from a plain server. All three end at an address on a hosting network; the difference lies on your side of the connection, out of sight from here.
• It describes one address at one moment. Addresses change, VPN apps rotate exits, and mobile networks reassign constantly, so an older result may no longer hold.
Common use cases
Confirming a VPN is on
Before signing in to anything sensitive, check that the address shown is the VPN's and not yours. A VPN that quietly dropped is the usual cause of a leak.
Understanding a block
When a site refuses you with "proxy detected", this shows what it reacted to. Switching to another exit, or turning the VPN off, is usually the fix.
Checking a work laptop
Corporate machines often route everything through head office. An address belonging to your employer rather than your provider tells you that is happening.
Reviewing a suspicious signup
Paste an address from your logs. A datacenter range deserves more scrutiny than a residential one, though neither proves anything on its own.
Explaining odd prices
Travel and shopping sites price by location. Seeing which country your address maps to explains a figure that does not match what a friend sees.
Filing an abuse report
Copy the result into your complaint. The AS number and operator name are what the receiving network needs to find the customer behind the address.
Technical details
"Proxy" covers several arrangements, and they do not all leave the same trace. The table below sets out what each one does with your traffic and how it tends to appear in a check like this. The last row is the honest exception: a residential proxy borrows a real home connection, so it looks like one.
| Type | What it forwards | Encrypts your traffic | How it appears here |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP or HTTPS proxy | Web requests only, per application | No, beyond the site's own HTTPS | Hosting network, if the proxy runs on a rented server |
| SOCKS5 proxy | Any TCP connection, per application | No | Hosting network, same as above |
| Transparent proxy | Everything, inserted by the network you are on | No | Usually invisible: the address often still belongs to the ISP |
| VPN | Everything the device sends | Yes, from your device to the VPN server | Hosting network, often a wholesale provider such as M247 |
| Tor | Everything routed through the Tor client | Yes, in layers across three relays | Hosting network, and the exit relay is often named in the organisation field |
| Residential proxy | Traffic routed through a real home connection | Depends on the provider | Consumer ISP network, which is the whole point of it |
Proxy, VPN and Tor are not the same thing
The three words get used interchangeably, and the difference decides what you are protected against. A plain proxy forwards requests and nothing more, so the site sees the proxy while your own network can still see where you are going. A VPN encrypts everything leaving your device, so your provider sees only a tunnel to one server. Tor does the same across three relays, each knowing only its neighbours, which is why no single relay can link you to your destination.
From the outside all three produce the same observable fact, which is why this page reports the fact rather than guessing the cause. If your question is whether an address belongs to a known VPN provider, the VPN checker is built around that and names the provider where it can. For the full registration and location detail on any address, including a map of the approximate coordinates, use the IP lookup.
About the data
Network and location details come from MyIPShow's own geolocation endpoint at ip.myipshow.com. Nothing you type is stored on a server: the recent checks list lives in your browser and the Clear button deletes it. The time zone comparison uses Intl.DateTimeFormat, which reads the setting from your own operating system and sends it nowhere.
Related tools
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell whether I am behind a proxy?+
Load this page and read the two lines that describe your own connection. If the network operator is your internet provider and the time zones agree, nothing is in the way. If the operator is a hosting company, or the address maps to a country you are not in, your traffic is passing through something before it reaches the internet.
Why does a website say I am using a proxy when I am not?+
Because the same signal has innocent causes. Mobile carriers put thousands of customers behind shared addresses, some providers route through cloud infrastructure, and address ranges get resold, so a range that once belonged to a hosting company can end up serving homes. Checking the operator and AS number here tells you which side of that line your address falls on.
Can this tool tell the difference between a proxy and a VPN?+
No, and nothing that runs in a browser can. Both end at a server that speaks to websites on your behalf, so both present an address on a hosting network. The difference is in how your traffic reaches that server, which happens entirely on your side of the connection and leaves no trace a web page can inspect.
Why is there no risk score or blacklist check?+
A score would need a commercial abuse database behind it, updated constantly and paid for by the query. This tool does not have one, and inventing a number would be worse than showing none. What it gives you instead is the raw evidence: the operator, the organisation, the AS number and the word that triggered the flag.
What does the time zone check actually prove?+
It compares where your computer thinks it is with where your address says it is. A mismatch means those two disagree, which is normal when a VPN or proxy is on and unusual otherwise. It is not proof: a traveller who never changed their laptop clock will show a mismatch with no proxy involved at all.
Is it legal to use a proxy or a VPN?+
In most countries using one is perfectly legal and routine, and companies rely on them every day. A handful of countries restrict or license VPN use, and using one to get around a service's regional rules usually breaks that service's terms even where the tool itself is legal. The answer depends on where you are, so check your local rules.
Can a website still see my real IP address if I use a proxy?+
A correctly configured proxy or VPN hides it, but leaks happen. A proxy set only in the browser leaves other applications connecting directly, a dropped VPN can fail open, and DNS requests sometimes escape the tunnel. Checking your address after connecting is the simplest way to confirm the setup is doing what you think it is.
Why does my address show a city I do not live in?+
IP geolocation is an estimate built from registration records and routing data, not a measurement. Providers often register a whole region to one city, and traffic can be routed through a hub some distance away. Country level accuracy is usually reliable; city level is frequently wrong by tens or even hundreds of kilometres.