Tailscale Misled by Proxy Location | Generated by AI
Question: Summarize the network diagnosis, redacting all IP addresses, and focus especially on the key discovery at the bottom.
Answer:
Network Diagnosis Summary
Setup
- Mac (parents’ home, Guangzhou District A) connects via hysteria2 proxy (LA) for general traffic
toworkstation (your home, Guangzhou District B / Zengcheng) sits behind China Telecom NAT on its local subnet
The Routing Problem
Current Tailscale path:
Mac (GZ District A) → hysteria2 proxy (LA, USA) → DERP relay (Singapore) → to workstation (GZ District B)
Latency: ~500ms average, sometimes up to 900ms.
Key Discovery (the bottom part)
The real issue isn’t network topology — it’s that Tailscale is confused about Mac’s location.
Because Mac routes all traffic through the hysteria2 proxy in LA, Tailscale sees Mac as being in the US, so it picks Singapore as the nearest DERP relay. The actual physical path is:
Guangzhou → USA → Singapore → Guangzhou
A completely unnecessary intercontinental round trip between two machines that are in the same city.
If Tailscale saw Mac’s real IP (China Telecom, Guangzhou), it would pick a much closer relay — likely Hong Kong — cutting latency dramatically, possibly 5–10x.
Root Fix
Exclude Tailscale traffic from the hysteria2 proxy on Mac. Let Tailscale use the real local IP for its coordination and DERP selection, while other traffic still routes through the proxy.