by Guest on 2025/09/03 05:29:55 PM
Hello! Thank you for the awesome app. I have tried without success to get the current IP to show when using Tixati. Us users who rely heavy on VPN would love to see this feature in place in upcoming release. Privacy being a major concern when torrenting is always on the top of everyone's list and being able to see the current IP at a glance would be very helpful with all of us users peace of mind when running behind a VPN. A status bar display that is easy to activate would be a very useful addition to an already superb product. Thank you for all of your hard work and continued support and updates! Kudos!
by Guest on 2026/03/17 03:58:35 AM
I think that you are confusing too many things.
First of all, the concept of a single external IP address, despite being generally obvious, is not strictly defined, nor can be defined at all. Some systems have multiple network connections and multiple IP addresses, directly or through NAT. To be specific, most public VPN users actually have two independent connections to the outside world, but the route table usually points all traffic to one of them. Even with a single connection, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are different, and their connectivity can be different. A single client behind NAT can even talk to different peers from different external IP addresses, but regular home user probably won't be in that situation.
Another problem is that the program usually can't get that address from anywhere directly, and has to rely on indirect means. Some well known sites and services can report the IP address back to the client. Can we trust them? Will they work forever? Peers might tell us what they see. Can we trust them? What if they reply with different values (happens all the time for ports behind certain NAT types)?
Moreover, ISP can change the address allocation rules at any time (and will do that in certain cases). So client has to repeat the checks constantly, and guess, based on assumptions about typical ISPs, when odd replies can be ignored, and when to assume that external address has changed.
That's why Tixati only adds the warning about lack of incoming connections, which is, in general, and after a significant operating time, a sure sign that you are behind some kind of device (or software firewall) that does not let them through. On the other hand, lack of that warning does not mean that everyone can reach you. But some peers can.
What is more important is that you demand a feature that gives you a false sense of security. For example, why don't they put warning light indicating gas tank fire in cars? Because it is already too late, and you need to run away from the car instead of pushing buttons and inspecting lights if your gas tank is on fire. Let's say you switch to Tixati window and see the IP address you really don't want to see. What are you going to do? Was it working like that for 5 minutes or 5 hours? What was the reason? Have you forgot about sleep-mode-induced network restarts? It is too late to ask yourself that.
This is why you don't hope that it works. You make sure that it works. Most commonly, you just need to choose the static virtual VPN interface in connection settings before the initiation of any network activity. Then you check that Tixati works when VPN is on, and that it sends no data anywhere else when it is turned off (use Wireshark). You can also add firewall rules to make sure that even after any accidental misconfiguration it is denied other network access. You can also disable automatic torrent start at program start, and only start manually.
If VPN interface is dynamically added and removed, you may try to bind to the specific address if it's constant, and check what else the VPN client does to the system to figure out how traffic goes. Use firewall, too. Do not rely on magical settings in VPN client applications that promise some kind of strict mode if you don't know how they work, and what they do. Check the results. Try to reason or test what happens when network is lost and restored, or system sleeps. The changes might not be restored properly, so limit the client with your own hands.
