Performance: real visitor IP

Why your server sees CDN addresses instead of visitors' IPs, and how to read the real IP from the request headers.

What it is

Tuurbo runs its optimizations on the nodes of the Cloudflare CDN, before the traffic reaches your server. For this to work the record must pass through the CDN (proxy active): you turn this on with Activate Tuurbo in DNS.

A side effect: your server receives requests from the CDN, so in logs and analytics it sees CDN addresses (for example 172.70.114.153) instead of your visitors' IPs.

Where the real IP is

The real IP is not lost: it travels in an HTTP header.

CF-Connecting-IP: always present.
True-Client-IP: optional, available on Enterprise configurations.

How to read it

PHP

$real_ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP'] ?? $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

NGINX

set_real_ip_from 172.70.0.0/16;
real_ip_header CF-Connecting-IP;

Add a set_real_ip_from line for each Cloudflare IP range: the official list is in the Cloudflare guide "Restoring original visitor IPs".

Proxy active or DNS only

Mode	What happens
Proxy active	Traffic goes through the CDN: Tuurbo optimizes, caches and protects. The server sees CDN IPs.
DNS only	Traffic goes straight to your server: no Tuurbo optimization is applied.

Make sure applications, logs and security plugins read CF-Connecting-IP.
Do not use REMOTE_ADDR alone to identify users or block IPs.
This applies to every site behind a CDN or reverse proxy, not only Tuurbo.

Common problems

Problem	What to check
All visits come from the same IP	The site reads `REMOTE_ADDR`: switch to `CF-Connecting-IP`.
A security plugin blocks real users	Configure the plugin to trust the CDN header.
Optimizations are not applied	Check that Activate Tuurbo is on for the record.

Performance: real visitor IP

What it is

Where the real IP is

How to read it

Proxy active or DNS only

What we recommend

Common problems

Related pages

Related topics