WFH trick: Can I use VPN to change my IP address so Zoom Admin doesn’t know I’m in a different country?

Site Feedback
1

My steps are

  1. Keep VPN on (make location in California)
  2. Open Zoom on my laptop (I am in mexico)
  3. Does this work?

Other strategy

  1. Use teamviewer
  2. Log into home computer in California and open zoom
  3. Somehow use my laptop audio to be transferred to the Zoom on my computer in California. Possible?

———————-

Here’s the rest of the plan if curious:

WFH trick - Is this a smart plan? Use teamviewer to log into computer at home that then opens VMWare (what my company uses) see the steps!

So will this hide my location

  1. Open teamviewer from my laptop (in Mexico) and log into home computer (in California)
  2. Once inside my home computer, I open VMWare virtual desktop (what my company uses)
  3. Log in with a PingID (some authentication app) from phone (idk if any issues here, if so, then virtually connect my iPhone from MacBook)
  4. Then open VMware which is my work desktop.
  5. Any red flags?
2

Echoing, I’m not sure why anyone would care where you are or if they’d be looking for it. Logging in from random VPN servers in the world would be a way bigger red flag for IT guys than logging in from a country where they likely employ a lot of people.

To your original question, your Ping app would most likely geo locate and most block sign in while on VPNs, so it’s most likely you couldn’t fake that portion (almost like they made it that way on purpose)

3

Do you not want the people working for Zoom to know you’re in a different country? Cause even if you do this there’s a chance someone from Zoom will still know exactly what you’re doing.

Also, does your work care about what country you’re in? If they don’t care there may not be any problems with this.

Oh, and you may want to post this question in a subreddit that’s all about IT and heavy, deep, computer stuff.

4

Using a VPN will mask your ip, but you have to make sure you are logged out of your account before joining a meeting. If you are logged in and you join a meeting then obviously the admin will see your details.

5

Hey! Sorry, I meant I don’t work for zoom. I only worry about say an IT person from my company who may have access to some info about IP addresses (idk if Zoom provides them with this).

6

What do you mean? I think I plan to use a VPN on my laptop too and just access zoom there. Is there any red flags to doing this besides just making sure to log in with the vpn on?

7

Oh. Oh! Well, you can contact someone at Zoom and ask them what info they give to your company.

Or you can find an IT person outside of your company that knows a lot about location tracking and who gets your IP address and stuff like that.

That’s all I can think of, but there may be more options I don’t know about.

Obviously you’re not gonna talk to the company IT guys cause that spoils the plan.

8

Well if you are joining a meeting that is hosted by an account that is administrated by the same organization, you will want to make sure you’re signed out everywhere. Admins can see more specific data about a logged in users computer IF the meeting took place under their organization.

If you are joining someone else’s meeting, just make sure you are logged out of the app and the browser, because even if you don’t have your name on it, your details will pop up if you’re logged in.

9

I am not familiar with all intricacies, but I would worry very much about contradictory cross-information.

Let’s say you join Zoom via a VPN that pretends you are in California. Or you do so by remotely connecting to your home computer which then connects to your work Zoom meeting. What your IT guy gets depends on the level of account your company has (i.e. either nothing for a single user account or everything for a Fortune-500 or education account). Let’s suppose it works correctly and your IT guy sees that you are indeed in California.

  • Are you connecting to your email via the same VPN? If not, they will readily see that your email is downloaded from Mexico. Even if you only connect to your VPN when doing a Zoom meeting would raise even more flags because it would feel like you are connecting from Mexico every morning and California every afternoon.

  • Is your phone a company phone? Then they have localization data.

  • Even if not, the same problem happens if your phone picks up your company mail or files on the company server.