Hottwire

When you first connect you are connecting to IRC. The tunnels are different from the IRC (chat functions).

It's most likely the geoip database being used. Don't worry about it, this is typically why most people put the location of the tunnel in the server name.

Assuming you are talking about a Tunnel server you host, if so. Does your server allow ICMP in/out? The firewall rule for ping in/out is required to allow clients to ping in which the server detects and then presents the ping in the client.