What IP address shows Japanese pocket wifi when using abroad?

If I’m connecting my work computer with a Japanese rented pocket wifi in Thailand, can my company find out that I’m not in Japan? Thanks.

8 comments
  1. You need to set up a VPN server in your home (in Japan) that you can log into from anywhere. Then, your company will see you from your home IP address.

  2. Yes, very easily. Any semi strict/data privacy focused company will also have automated reports in place to highlight any IP addresses connecting from unusual sources too. Most public VPNs are easily spotted too fyi.

  3. There’s a whole lotta ways you can give up your location other than just your IP.

    If you are trying to work from Thailand while your company thinks you are in Japan, you have a huge risk of them finding out.

  4. **Life pro tip:** If you don’t understand the basics of how a technology works, don’t try to use it to break rules.

  5. If you want to make it appear like you are at home in Japan then you need to set up a VPN server at your house or apartment. I would recommend a Raspberry Pi running PiVPN and using WireGuard as the VPN.

    You can install WireGuard on your phone and turn it on, forcing traffic through the VPN from your phone (in case you are checking emails from there).

    Assuming you are using a work computer, you likely cannot install WireGuard directly onto your computer. So you would need an intermediary device running WireGuard that connects back to the VPN server in your apartment in Japan. I’d probably use another Raspberry Pi for this. The setup would look like this:

    1. Your computer connects to the RasPi

    2. The RasPi connects to the pocket WiFi or hotel WiFi or whatever WiFi.

    3. The RasPi, going over the WiFi it is connected to, creates a WireGuard VPN tunnel back to the RasPi running the WireGuard server at your apartment.

    4. All traffic from your computer gets routed through the WireGuard tunnel and appears to come out of your home Internet connection.

    This is not completely foolproof. If you need to connect to your company VPN from your laptop it may not work because tunneling one VPN (the company one, that you do not control) through another VPN (your WireGuard one) can result in packet fragmentation which will cause the connection to fail.

    There is also no absolute guarantee that your company will not be able to detect this. If they’re a typically low-tech Japanese business then the odds are probably in your favor (but I still make no guarantees.) If they are anything beyond that then you’re rolling the dice. And of course if you slip up and connect from your phone or laptop without going through the VPN, even once, you have left a trail that is easy to find.

    I’ve been monkeying around with *NIX systems since before Linux was a thing, and have quite a bit of experience with VPNs. Rough guesstimate that it would take me 0.5 to 1 day of effort to get this set up, tested, and be comfortable that it is working in an automated fashion. No offense, but considering the question you asked to start this tread, I don’t think setting this up is within your technical capability.

    Edit: One more thing, some modern laptops are GPS enabled. The laptop can literally report your exact location down to a few square meters. No VPN is going to hide that.

    Edit 2: Your laptop should have WiFi disabled and connect to the RasPi via Ethernet. The laptop could report to your company what WLANs it sees around it. Unless you work in IT (and you wouldn’t be asking this question if you did…) you have no idea what information your laptop does and does not report back to the company.

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