My real IP is being shown even when I'm connected to PIA

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1

So I connected to PIA this morning and noticed that even tho it said I’m connected it was still showing my real IP address. It was doing this on both my PCs.

I tried a handful of solutions I found online to try and fix it, but none of them worked.

I ended up uninstalling PIA and reinstalling and it worked, but then the very next time I disconnected and reconnected it started showing my real IP address again.

Is there a perminate solution to fix this this issues?

2

Make sure the VPN software is not running:

Uninstall the TAP driver from the device manager

Press and hold the Windows key, followed by R on your keyboard. This will open the “Run” dialog window.
Type in devmgmt.msc and press OK or hit the Enter key on your keyboard. The device manager window should appear after a few seconds.
Click on the > arrow next to the Network Adapters section.
Right click on the adapter listed as TAP-Windows Adapter V9 #2
Click Uninstall
Check the box for Delete the driver software for this device
Click OK
Note: If there are any other “TAP” Adapters listed here please uninstall them in the same manner - Ex. TAP-Win32 Adapter. If you do not see any “TAP” Adapters listed here, look into the Other Devices or Unknown Devices sections in case any TAP adapters are there. If you cannot see any TAP adapter in any sections of this window, it is safe to assume you do not have the TAP adapter installed and you can safely continue to the next section.
Install the older version of the OpenVPN TAP driver

Download this particular build: https://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/tap-windows-9.9.2_3.exe
Run the installer - it should only contain one component, so you can just click next and install the defaults as they are
Launch the PIA application again and check if the speeds have improved!
If these steps didn’t work for you, you can simply reinstall the PIA application. It will automatically
reinstall latest PIA’s version of the TAP driver.

FOR TORRENT SPEED IMPROVING:

  1. Connect to server with port forwarding and enable it on PIA settings.

  2. Go to torrent settings and disable local peer discovery, DHT, uTP, and UPnP/NAT-PMP. If you use qBittorrent, enable “Anonymous mode”.

3

Easy fix, enable dns leak

4

It sounds probable that this is your issue. However, it’s always best to take a look at a debug log to confirm.

Please let me know what your ticket number is, and I’ll take a look!

5

for me it was the DNS leaking, so if you have trouble with the dns leak protection settings you could try this instead: https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/hc/en-us/articles/219460397-How-to-change-DNS-settings-in-Windows

6

I tried that and all it does kill my internet connection.

7

I will look into this when I get home. Thank you for your help so far.

8
  1. connecting to PIA should hide your IP automatically
  2. go do dnsleak website and run the tests to see if it shows IP and location, it should show something else
    3 turning on dnsleak protection should definately hide everything
    lastly, you could try using PIA DNS servers on your PC.
9

Absolutely! I look forward to it :slight_smile:

10

that link you posted appears to have resolved my issue knocks on wood thanks for your help. i appreciate it.

11

Awesome, that’s wonderful to hear.