title: What IP Address is RCurl using on my machine and can I make it use my VPN?
body: <p>Every time I execute the code sample below, I am returned a unique IP Address that is different from my current public IP address whenever I use a standard browser.</p>
  
  <pre><code>library(RCurl)
  library(XML)
  
  url &lt;- 'http://www.whatsmyip.org/'
  
  site &lt;- getURL(url)
  site_data &lt;- htmlParse(site)
  
  # xpath the field this site uses to display my public IP
  xpathSApply(site_data, '//*[@id="ip"]', xmlValue) # value is different every time
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can anyone explain this behavior to me? I am aware of the list of RCurl options:</p>
  
  <pre><code>listCurlOptions()
  getCurlOptionsConstants()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But somehow the defaults are set up to change your IP Address on each "getURL()" call and I am not sure why or how.</p>
  
  <p>I have reviewed: </p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>the <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RCurl/RCurl.pdf" rel="nofollow">RCurl cran pdf</a></li>
  <li>the <a href="http://www.omegahat.net/RCurl/" rel="nofollow">omegahat description of the RCurl package and philosophy</a></li>
  <li>as well as the original curl documentation (can only use two links in this post, sorry)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Despite reviewing these documents, I haven't been able to really understand why or how the IP Address changes for my "getURL()" function every time I execute it. Can someone explain to me what these IP addresses are and how they are generated or point me in the direction of some resources that can help me understand this?</p>
  
  <p>Also, is there a way I can make my RCurl "getURL()" function calls run through my VPN service? I have seen the similar question in regards to Tor, but is this possible using just a basic VPN service other than Tor?</p>
  
  <p>edit per hrbrmstr's comment:
  Sorry I forgot to include this information. I am using Windows 10 and the VPN I tested this with is "HMA" VPN.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you!</p>
  
  <p>**Edit: Hack-R's answer is correct. It appears that there is something going on with that website I used to check IP **</p>