Searx queries IP reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-03 11:38 Hi all, I'm very noob when it comes to networking and self-hosting so I have a simple question. If I self host a private searx instance I am sending my queries from localhost:8080, but which is the actual IP that search engines see?I know that at router level the private IP is converted to a public IP that's exposed to the web, but is it the same case here?I have not port-forwarded anything. TIA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Couch941 · 2023-11-03 11:42 >which is the actual IP that search engines see You mean your private one or google, bing etc? >I know that at router level the private IP is converted to a public IP that's exposed to the web, but is it the same case here where's "here"? If you mean public search engines, then yes ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-03 11:48 I mean Google &co, do they see my public IP from the queries?I don't know how searx actually works. Of course their public instance they send their queries from their IP, but I don't know how things work if I self host, I want to be sure that my private IP won't someway leak. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Couch941 · 2023-11-03 11:51 Yes, they see your public IP address from the queries. I am not familiar with searx so can't help you with that. There is no thing as a private IP address. Well there is but it can't leak. Everyone has the same private IP addresses. Unless you are talking about IPv6, that is a bit more complex. Also, your public IP address won't be directly tied to you. Because of the IPv4 shortage lots of ISPs basically do NAT so that multiple clients, or whole regions use the same IP address. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-03 11:58 If they see my public IP it's fine since I'm behind a VPN and they will see the VPN IP. I don't use IPv6 , my distro has it disabled. However I might be wrong but my private IP is B class (172.etc) and it changes everytime I query it, is it possible? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- zfa · 2023-11-03 20:15 They don't see your internal IP, just the public IP of the searx instance (or the public IP of the VPN endpoint you pop out of). Not sure why the devs haven't/won't answer this for you, it's basic stuff. fwiw, my searx instance has been returning such bad results the last month or so I've ditched it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-03 20:43 Maybe the devs found my question too nooby to be worth an answer 😁 however thanks for confirming my hypothesis. Yes, searxng is acting up sometimes, it looks like bots attacks are ending up in search engines blocking the instances. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-11-04 02:12 They see the IP of the server your searx instance is hosted on. Its basically a proxy and hides your client IP if it differs from the servers IP. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-04 08:46 My server is my localhost, generally they recommend using a VPS cloud server and making the instance public but I just wanted to keep it for myself to have a more private browsing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RedditSlayer2020 · 2023-11-04 09:58 That's perfectly fine but that also means that every search engine that gets queried by searchx will know the public IP of your local host machine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evhzn · 2023-11-04 16:34 Yes sure, that's why I thought that setting up a VPN would have hid my IP. The problem is that apps can bypass tunneling, for example WebRTC in a browser would happily leak an IP, I was wondering if searx could leak it too.