When using a VPN it is important to know what networking infrastructures you are actually interacting with. Very few VPN providers own and operate their own servers.
Using the traceroute tool you can see that while using the Chicago based Private Internet Access server, you will connect to multiple Cogentco, Digital Energy Technologies, and Iomart servers along the way.
| 1 | 77.240.12.190 | 77-240-12-190.rdns.nuttyabouthosting.co.uk | 20860 – Iomart Cloud Services Limited | 0 |
| 2 | 77.240.7.139 | 1001.te3-1.core2.dc7.as20860.net | 20860 – Iomart Cloud Services Limited | |
| 3 | 130.180.203.227 | be44.3226.asr01.dc6.as20860.net | 20860 – Iomart Cloud Services Limited | |
| 4 | 130.180.203.8 | be65535.asr01.dc13.as20860.net | 20860 – Iomart Cloud Services Limited | |
| 5 | 130.180.202.0 | be16.asr01.ld5.as20860.net | 20860 – Iomart Cloud Services Limited | |
| 6 | Request timed out | |||
| 7 | 154.54.60.13 | be3488.ccr42.lon13.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 8 | 154.54.82.38 | be2101.ccr32.bos01.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 9 | 154.54.0.221 | be3600.ccr22.alb02.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 10 | 154.54.29.173 | be2879.ccr22.cle04.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 11 | 154.54.7.129 | be2718.ccr42.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 12 | 154.54.1.102 | be3470.rcr51.b022161-0.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com | 174 – COGENT-174 | |
| 13 | 181.214.164.34 | 61317 – Digital Energy Technologies Ltd. |