Hiding IP address

topmum

Hi
Does anyone know if it is possible to hide my ip address? If it is possible, how do I do it?

:beer:

free4440273

Perhaps use a free anonymous proxy server

spaceman5

hi, there are plenty of freeware programs out there, if u just google hide my i.p address there are pages of the stuff, but here is one i have used before, http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/, HTH Dave.

Keldin

yes and no.

No you cannot hide it because you can't communicate with another computer/website/email server etc unless it knows how to find you.

Yes because you can route your traffic through another proxy server or intermediary who keeps your details secret. Tor is a good place to start (google tor) depending on what you are doing.

K

papito

Out of curiosity:
How can I benefit by hiding my IP address?
or
When would it be better to do it?

alphawoo

Proxy makes it harder to get viruses. you can blocjk adverts/popups.. id go with https://www.anonypath.com always good.

Matt_A_2

papito wrote: »

How can I benefit by hiding my IP address?

As a rule, because the vast majority of normal internet users get their access from ISPs which assign them dynamic (as opposed to static) IP address you generally don't get a lot of benefit unless you're up to no good.

A good example of why you might want to disguise your IP is if you wanted to watch the latest episode of an American housewife drama (as an example... it's not really my thing, honest) for free through abc.com. ABC restrict access to these programs to people access the site from IP addresses hosted in the US. Therefore, by proxying from a server based in the US it appears that to abc.com that the connection is valid, and so it serves up the program. Such action is, of course, against the terms of abc.com, so please don't try this at home.

One of the major exceptions to the 'up to no good' rule would be if you wished to prevent corporate bodies from building up a picture about your IP address because you simply wish to protect your privacy. This may be achieved by using a program such as Peer Guardian to automatically refuse connections from known 'undesirable' IP ranges. Be aware though, if you go hunting for this program there are numerous websites on the net which look similar to the official website but will provide you with a version of PG that is bundled with spyware.

For the normal man/woman on the 'net there's no need to use this sort of technology, if you don't know what an IP range is already then it's probably not worth looking into it.

Conor_3

alphawoo wrote: »

Proxy makes it harder to get viruses.

Utter rubbish.

Conor_3

Keldin wrote: »

yes and no.

No you cannot hide it because you can't communicate with another computer/website/email server etc unless it knows how to find you.

Yes because you can route your traffic through another proxy server or intermediary who keeps your details secret. Tor is a good place to start (google tor) depending on what you are doing.

K

What nobody has mentioned though is that if you're using free/anonymous/Tor proxy servers, there's no guarantee that they're not going to be sniffing the data you're sending through them.

Apart from illegal reasons, there's no need to hide your IP address or use any proxy server other than your ISPs.