If you’re still wondering why it’s a bad idea, this means that either you have nothing sensitive stored on your computer (can it be?), or you are not conscious about the “danger” hanging around. And, gosh, locking your screen will do no harm: depending on your operating system, it’s just a matter of simple combinations of the key pressed and then you can go away with peace in mind- so why don’t you do that?

Things you are leaving behind

Now, let’s consider that you think you have nothing sensitive on your computer and see what another user can see if he take the time to seat in front of your computer and “play” with it. Let’s see the usual things you’re leaving behind when letting access to your computer:

• the open documents: this is the most obvious one. You’ve left some documents open, it’s easy to have a look at them. But even if they aren’t open, you know that most software now comes with the “recently opened document”. So now, you know that you’re leaving some traces behind. Let’s just hope you didn’t watch some “forbidden” movies at work and that your media player “remembers” it, nor have you read some confidential documents,
• the files stored on your hard drive: you surely have photos, music or videos laying around that can be “interesting”.Do you know that some of the guys who repair your computer check for those “hidden treasures” while trying to remove that virus from your computer whenever you ask for their help? Have you ever been suggested something like “we need to bring your computer to our lab for repairing?”.Just think about it: how badly do you want some of the files you keep on your computer unfound? We all have something stored on our computer that we don’t want other to know: either it is the usual ones (adult photos and movies usually), or that photo of you drunk and trying to climb the police’s fences while you’re almost naked on a TGIF night that your best friend sent you (ok, this probably didn’t happen, but you get the idea),
• your browser’s hidden treasure: unless you’re following some of the tips I left for browsing incognito, your browser reveals a lot about your online history. Whether your browser keeps some credentials for accessing some online sites (have you noticed those “remember me” features on most websites?), or your browsing history (oops, you’ve been surfing on some “people news” website while your boss was expecting that important report for … yesterday?).In fact, if it’s only for checking what you did, you can still find a way to “minimize” it. But let’s say that your browser automatically connects you to Facebook (or whatever website), if someone really wants to harm you, it’s very simple to post something on your behalf while you are away. And remember, anything posted online is hard to remove.

Is anyone having access to your computer? Are you comfortable to let someone browsing your private data? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Check your IP address status

You will be able to check your IP to see if it has been put on a blacklist, you can now see why your emails have been going to spam filters. Even if you are not sending spam you may be put on one of these lists, as it is done all automatically by the servers and if it thinks you are sending spam then you can be sure to find yourself added onto this list.

Most residential and Cable/DSL connections are blacklisted. This is why it’s important not to send out your mass emails using that connection. You should be using your ISP connection for sending these out.

IP address tools

This site has many other tools also you can check out, many are fun to try out and use. You can do IP tracking, traces, and many other cool features. If you’re wondering how to check to see if your IP has been blacklisted it is very easy to do, just put your IP into a URL form and check the databases against your mail server IP. If it’s in the database then you have been blacklisted by that spambot.

My IP Address Is Blacklisted. What To Do?

If you keep receiving emails that you would like to send back to your inbox, then there is a great chance that your IP is blacklisted.

That means, that you are not able to send any emails until your IP gets deleted from the list. There are different ways how to get your IP from that list, but first, let’s check that your IP is really blacklisted. The emails that you receive back should look something like this:

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address (es) failed:
yourname@yourdomain.com
SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:
yourdomain.com [205.235.xxx.xxx]: 550-Message rejected because yourdomain.com [205.235.xxx.xxx] is blacklisted at
550 bl.spamcop.net see Blocked – see http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml? 205.235.xxx.xxx

How to get your IP removed from the blacklist?

The easiest way to get your email working again is to just wait. Most of the IP’s get off the blacklist in 24 hours. If this does not help or you just do not want to wait so long, you should write an email to your host, and they should be able to help you with your problem and they can also tell you what exactly has been going on with your email address that it got blacklisted. It’s probably a malicious software on your computer or a warez script on your web server that is sending out spam emails.

How to check your IP address

If you want to see who blocked your mail server IP address (blacklisted IP address), check here. Enter the IP address and press Submit.

If you would like to fix this problem as soon as possible, go to http://www.abuse.net/relay.html and enter your IP and email address and click on “Test for relay”. This can speed up the un-listing process, but the process can still last for 24 hours.

Blacklisted IP address workaround

If you are IP address blacklisted there is other ways to go about getting your emails out of the junk folder, this will involve changing or hiding your IP. Some areas you won’t be able to do this though, and you will be stuck sending the mail to junk folders. Using proxy servers or VPN services are other ways to go about getting to sites where your IP address has been blacklisted, you will be able to do anything you normally would be able too, but you will need a new account.

How Do You Prevent Yourself From Using a Blacklisted IP Address?

On the previous article, I dealt with VPN services multiple IP addresses and spam. I addressed the issue of using a blacklisted IP address. Let’s see in this article, how this can affect you.

So as to give some background, we all know that when you are using one VPN service provider to connect to the internet, you are given a different IP address that your ISP has assigned to you. Now, considering that most VPN providers has limited IP address to assign to all their users, meaning that IP addresses are shared, there will come a time where you’ll be using one IP address that has been used by another customer. Now the question is, how does it affect you if that previous customer has done something nasty/banned?

So how do you check that you won’t get those blacklisted IP addresses?

So far, there actually isn’t one central database on the internet that collects the list of banned IP addresses (that would be nice if someone ever develops it, though). Anyway, some initiatives are worth mentioning: this includes the Spamhaus which is mainly used for protecting from e-mail spammers- it may be worth checking your IP address from this database.

Another option is to check your IP against a list of 100 spam domain database at DNSBL. Although checking against those databases don’t ensure that you are using a safe IP address, it can help when choosing a VPN provider too. How do you do that?

How to choose a VPN provider with no blacklisted IP address?

In fact, before opting for a VPN provider, you can either ask directly the VPN provider for their policy against spammers (this is the simplest way, and you can receive honest answers), or you can ask for some sample IP address you would receive if subscribing to their service, then check that IP address against the database aforementioned.

Conclusion

Anyway, this post isn’t about denigrating VPN service providers, it just pinpoints issues you may encounter when using VPN since you’ll be using shared IP address. In fact, this issue is not exclusive to VPN providers since the same applies to the IP address your Internet Service Provider is giving you. The issue just got bigger with VPN since spammers have access to a bigger set of IP addresses that are located in different countries.

Is my IP address blacklisted? Have you checked yours?

This unique address is called an IP address (Internet Protocol address) that computers make use of to identify and converse with each other on an internet network.

IP Address explained: IP Address Format

IP addresses consist of 32-bit binary strings which are generally seen as four numbers separated by periods and look something like 127.0.0.1.

The decimal numbers are merely a convenient way of encoding the numbers so that administrators and others find it easier to recognize them.

Initially, IP addresses were divided into five classes, as shown below. Classes A, B, and C are the most important: the first bits determine which category an address belongs to, and the classes differ in how much of the address is taken up with the network address and how much with the host address.

IP addresses explained: IP Address classes

So, IP addresses are now classified as given below:

Class A: An IP addresses between 1.0.0.0 and 127.255.255.255. The first byte recognizes the networks, the next 3 bytes the host. For example, here we have 127 networks and 16.777.216 hosts.

Class B: IP addresses between 128.0.0.0 and 191.255.255.255. The first 2 bytes recognize the networks, the next 2 bytes the hosts. Here the first byte is restricted to 128 – 191, so we have 65536 hosts and 16384 networks.

Class C: IP addresses between 192.0.0.0 and 223.255.255.255. The first 3 bytes recognize the networks, the last byte the hosts.

Class D: it is used when just one host is propagating and all the others are receiving.

Class E: Only for the future utilization

Now, how are the IP addresses created?

IP addresses are supervised and created by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority generally assigns super-blocks to Regional Internet Registries, who in turn allocate smaller blocks to Internet service providers and the enterprises.

Differences Between IPv4 and IPv6

When the IPv4 protocol of assigning host addresses was introduced, nobody would have imagined that there would be 4 billion devices connected to a large-scale network. That was back in the 70s and before the age of the Internet.

More IPs are needed

In time, it became clear that more addresses would be required and in 1999 the IPv6 was proposed. The IPv6 was introduced to overcome the IP address space shortage in addition to providing other benefits.

IPv4 vs. IPv6

IPv4 is a 32-bit address protocol while IPv6 is a 128-bit protocol. A 32-bit address space implemented using IPv4 allows for 4, 294, 967, 296 possible addresses. That is slightly above 4 billion addresses. A 128-bit address space, on the other hand, implemented using IPv6 would have 3.4 x 1038 possible addresses. It is hard to conceive if all these P addresses will ever be consumed.  Well, consider this, with IPv6 there are 6.65 x 1023 addresses for every square meter on Earth.

Looking closely at the syntax of these two protocols, IPv4 is delineated in dotted-decimal formats separated along 8-bit boundaries. IPv6, however, is divided along 16-bit boundaries. IPv4 is represented in 4 blocks of 8-bit binary while IPv6 is in groups of 16-bit hex values separated by colons.

Bigger payload

Another notable difference is that IPv6 supports a bigger payload than IPv4. This difference can be seen in the header information contained in the IPv6 packets. The packet headers define the payload length, hop limit, source, and destination address, all of which affect the payload. While many of the fields found in IPv4 packet headers are still found in IPv6, there is a slight difference in the information or naming of the areas.

At the moment, IP tunneling is employed to allow IPv4 and IPv6 addresses interconnection and make it possible to run both address types. Also, most devices and networks that have IPv6 support also support for IPv4 addresses.

What is a Private IP Address?

An IP address shows two things: first the network to which the computer fits in and the host, which is the number of computers. IP addresses can be classified as private IP addresses (where computers are not connected directly to the Internet) and public IP addresses (where networks connected directly to the Internet).

An IP Address is a sequence of numbers used to identify your computer.  This works in much of the same way as your home address or phone number works.  You must provide the post office or phone network a specific place for it to forward the information. Learn about private IP address.

Private IP address

Because there is a limit of possible IP Addresses, a private address is used to identify a network of computers.  For instance, if I were to buy ten computers for my small business, I could use one “Private IP Address” to identify my network instead of using a separate address for each computer.

The network uses a type of configuration known as NAT (Network Address Translation), which can identify each computer as belonging to my network.  It then can take any information that’s generated and connect it to the internet, sending it to any number of other IP Addresses.

Using a private IP address will not make your computer invisible. Even though your computer IP address is something like 10.0.0.x inside the network, outside your network, your computer has the IP of the network.

Dynamic vs. Static IP Addresses

An IP address can be static or dynamic. The system administrator allocates static IP addresses to every computer, and dynamic IP addresses are allocated by another device connected to the network.

When the computer is linked to a local area network (LAN), for instance in the corporate network or at home, the IP address is decided while organizing the network and is generally static. Such IP addresses can be, for example, 192.168.0.1, also known as private IP addresses.

On the other hand, when connecting to the internet network, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) decides the IP address which will recognize your PC when it is connected via modem to the internet, known as a public IP address. IP addresses for linking to the internet considered a wide area network (WAN) and can be dynamic or static, depending on the Internet Service Provider.

Because IP addresses are limited, there is not always enough to go around.  To make sure everyone can connect to the Internet, the system is separated into static IP addresses and dynamic IP addresses.

Static IP address

A Static IP address is designed to provide the user with a more stable identification.  Think of this as a phone number.  You have a standard phone number in which people can locate your phone and contact you.  It remains the same unless you explicitly decide to change it.  A static IP Address works in much the same way, in that it is used as a permanent ID.

Dynamic IP address

A dynamic IP address is for the opposite.  Think of it as a pay phone.  It is a temporary identification to allow you to connect to the Internet.  Just like a pay phone, though, you can only make “outgoing” connections.  It means that you cannot accept incoming calls because the “number” changes when you disconnect.  Even if you were to reconnect immediately, the chances of you receiving the same IP address is very small.

So, if your ISP (Internet Service Provider) delivers dynamic IP addresses(most of them do), your IP address is different every time you connect to the internet. It does not mean that your IP is hidden or that you are untraceable. Every ISP has a predefined range of IPs; so your IP address can be identified as belonging to your ISP. Plus, all ISP do log their traffic; thus they do know they have allocated you a specific IP at a particular moment in time.

Even if you have dynamic IP addresses, you need to hide your IP id you what to browse anonymously. The good news is that you have been banned from a forum or specific sites based on your IP you can create a new account with no problems.

IP Address management

What is involved in IP address management? In simple terms, this consists of the maintenance of all the network information about network IP addresses.

A network administrator will need to do this to find out the amount of free address space he has, what subnets are in use, how large the subnets are, where they are located and who is using them. While network management has remained virtually unchanged since the early beginnings of the TCP/ IP protocol, the scope and sophistication of the tools in network management have entirely changed. What are some of the tools used in network management?

Domain Name System

One of these is the DNS. Domain Name System defines the namespace of hierarchical domains by breaking domains into zones and centralized lines for administrative purposes. In short, DNS is a distributed database that has locally maintained network info that is also available globally.

Programs called name servers are used to implement DNS by contacting other name servers and storing the collected information organized into zones. For the quickly growing internet, DNS removed bottlenecks in networks but at the same time created zone database file complexity, decentralized information and lacked the ability to quickly store additional host information.

Commercial IP address management

Commercial IP address management software became available in the mid-1990s and offered such features as centralized management, a graphical user interface, consistency, dynamic DNS, and was both extensible and customizable. It also allowed the reporting of network information and activities.

Tools like Plesk and IP Address Manager (IPAM) help network engineers not only manage networks but also locate and resolve IP network problems. Some of the features of these 4^th generation tools include periodic checking and scanning of IP addresses to determine what IP addresses are available, scanning of the Active Directory, hierarchical representation of the network in a graphical user interface, end-to-end IP details like the Port Numbers, contact details and history of IP allocations. Alerts can also be configured where emails can be sent when an IP becomes available or used.

Tracking the location of an IP Address

Sometimes you may need to find out the exact location of an IP address. For example, if you pick up a proxy from a proxy list, you get only the country where the proxy is located.

What is location lookup?

To find out the exact location of the IP, you should perform a location lookup. There are many sites/services that can do this. My favorites are XMyIP, GeoBytes IP Locator, and IP2Location.

GeoBytes shows a Google map of the city, along with a bunch of other information (country, city, latitude, longitude, distance to nearby cities, etc.) about the location itself.

IP2Location also offers the name of the ISP (Internet Service Provider).

More info about the IP address

If you want more information on an IP address, you can do a WHOIS search also. ARIN WHOIS Database gives you information on who hosts a certain IP address and their registration information.

Should you hide your public IP address?

If your IP address isn’t hidden, virtually anyone with Internet access can track you directly to your home. Everyone can see this information, including hackers! I would say that most of the time you don’t need to worry by exposing your public IP address, but you have to consider hiding your IP while using public Wifi, while traveling or while accessing sites that look suspicious.

How to hide your IP address?

There are many different ways available to hide and change your IP address so you can have better security while messing around on the Internet or conducting business. You should use special programs or proxy servers to help your network be more secure or keep your browsing habits out of the eyes of snoopers. It’s easy to find out your IP address and even the IP addresses of others. If you are concerned about security, definitely take steps to keep yours obscured.

Would you like to find out more the best services for hiding your IP address? Then check the following hide IP tools.

E.U. Regulator: IP addresses are personal data

Whether or not knowing an IP address of a user to some of this equipment could be personal data, Peter Shaar, Germany’s data-protection commissioner, says this kind of information should stay private. This kind of information could potentially identify a user of a computer.

However, many competitors of Shaar’s thoughts, especially that of the number one internet search engine, Google, say that a machines IP address is absolutely irrelevant to personal identity. An IP address tracks a computer’s location, not the person staring at the monitor. Imagine computers at internet cafes and coffee shops. With hundreds of people coming and going every day, you would never be able to track one person down with the computer’s IP address.

Google collects data

Google says it collects IP address data only to help improve their search rankings. Using the IP address as a locator, they can figure out what language and where the results of their search terms should be coming from. An example given would be the term football. A New York searcher would find terms about American football games, or maybe even New York football. Someone looking up football in London would find English football, or soccer, website results.

Shaar says there is still cause for concern. Privacy policy information is very hard to access and understand and thinks there are ways to improve upon this. MSN is already showing signs of this by not actually collecting IP data, but by allowing users to sign in using their “Passport” feature, enabling them to get more refined search results.

Conclusion

To conclude, an IP address is a unique identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network which is required so that computer can be recognized and can communicate with other computers in an internet network.

1. Web proxies

This is the simplest way to hide your IP from any browser you use (including Opera). A web proxy is basically a site that works as an intermediate between you and the site you want to see/access. The key point is that the site you access does not see your IP as the calling source, but the web proxy.

You can find a lot of web proxies on sites like proxy.org. What you have to do is to access such a proxy, type in your desired URL and press Go/Submit. To be sure that it does change your IP, you can first type xmyip.com and see the IP and location of the proxy.

Usually, these are used to unblock sites like YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, but they are also useful for posting on forums or other such activities.

The main disadvantage of web proxies is that they have a short life and get banned, so you have to permanently look for fresh proxies. Also, make sure read the following post: Risks of using a proxy site.

Here are some old posts that list web proxies:

• MySpace proxies
• Facebook proxies

2. Use open proxies

There are a lot of sites that list open proxies you can use to hide your IP. An open proxy is a proxy with an address xx.xx.xx.xx: port that can be used as an intermediate between you and the site you want to see (the same mechanism as for web proxies).

What you have to do is to go to a site like SamAir.ru, choose a proxy and then setup up your browser (Opera) to use that proxy. Further, here is what you have to do: Configure Opera to use a proxy.

3. OperaTor

You can try using OperaTor, a bundle that combines Opera browser, Tor and Privoxy. But, OperaTor will not only hide your IP. It will leave no tracks about your online activities (as every browser does). Also, Torfox may be an alternative.

4. Use hide IP Opera software

There are a lot of hide IP software on the market. The main advantage of such software is they make it easier. You don’t have you look for new and working (web) proxies and configure your browser. They do these tasks for you. If you are interested to try, you can take a look at our recommended list or reading others post I published on such software:

• UltraSurf – Ultra Easy To Hide Your IP
• GPass: A Free Solution To Hide Your IP
• How To Hide Your IP Using Invisible Browsing

Important! Most of these products automatically change settings for IE and Firefox. For Opera, it may be necessary to make some additional settings.

5. VPN services

The most secure way to hide IP Opera is by using a VPN service. VPNs offer a high level of encryption and superior speed. Also, premium VPN providers offer many server locations (take for example HideMyAss, ibVPN, PureVPN, ExpressVPN, PrivateInternetAccess, NordVPN).

Here are some lists of VPN providers:

• United States – List of VPN Services that Provide US IP Addresses
• Germany – List of VPN Services that Provide DE IP Addresses
• France – List of VPN Services that Provide French IP Addresses
• Asia & Australia – List of VPN Services that Provide IP Addresses from Asia and Australia
• Torrent Friendly – List of VPN Services that allow P2P/Torrent traffic

6. Hide IP Opera Add-ons

Another good option for masking your IP on Opera is by using a proxy add-on. Simply go to Opera add-ons store and type proxy. Thus, you will get several results including ibVPN, the extension that I recommend.

Extra: how to use Opera Private Browsing mode and surf privately using Opera

The Private Browsing feature allows you to surf the web privately without leaving any trace of the websites you have visited. It’s useful when you are surfing using a public computer, do online banking, surf sites that you want to hide from other people.

Opera’s private browsing support both private tabs and private windows.

Open a private tab: right-click the “+” icon on the tab bar, then select New Private Tab. The private tab got a lock like an icon on the right side of the tab icon. Any browser activity within the tab is private.

Open a private window: Click on the File menu, then select New Private Window. The private window is red-colored. Any tab opened in the private window is a private tab.

Private browsing is the feature you can find on every modern web browser nowadays. But the Private Tab in Opera, which allows opening a site privately in normal browsing mode, is not found in other browsers.

Important! Remember that private mode does not hide your IP address, it only erases your browsing history! In order to hide your IP address, you need to use a proxy or a VPN solution that works with Opera (as explained to the beginning of the article). Such services create a private tunnel between your computer and the proxy / VPN servers. Thus, your online activity is hidden. Enjoy!

Linux VPN providers

Interestingly though, most serious VPN providers have well-documented installation instructions for Linux distributions. As opposed to Windows or Apple versions, most of the times, there are no “installers”(Linux apps, VPN clients for Linux). The reason is that there are a lot of Linux flavors out there, each having their package management system.

It comes as no surprise that serious VPN providers like HideMyAss, ibVPN, NordVPN, PureVPN, ExpressVPN, or IPVanish fully support Linux implementation.

A standard OpenVPN client

What’s excellent about VPN implementation on Linux is that most distribution already come with an OpenVPN client that is fully compatible with every OpenVPN server out there. After all, we are in a standardized protocol where, as long as the protocol is set (PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN, Softether, StealthVPN, …), it shouldn’t matter what client software we are using. Just in case your Linux distribution doesn’t come yet with an OpenVPN package, it’s just a matter of installing it from your distribution’s repository.

As an example, on an Ubuntu system, all you have to do would be launching something similar to

$ sudo apt-get install openvpn

If you are using SuSE, you’ll probably use Yast for the installation process, while an RPM-based Linux distribution would use either “rpm -i” or any package installation front-end.

Windows platform has “trained” us to have some “installation package” that will make the installation easier. The chances are that with a VPN on Linux installation, you’ll be given instructions as well as the credentials to set up your Linux VPN connection. It leads to one warning that we need to raise. As it is common with any Linux distribution, you have to be mindful of the distribution as well as the architecture where the OpenVPN client will be running.

Some troubleshooting tips

Running a VPN client from a Linux system isn’t any difficult as doing it from a Windows client or an Apple computer. However, few things need to be kept in mind so as not to blame the VPN service provider while it may be that your operating system may apply some restrictions.

As an example, I’ve come to some experiences where I received some strange error messages informing me that I couldn’t establish my VPN connection. It’s because my OpenVPN daemon isn’t running. It is a simple issue that can be easily solved by running the daemon through commands similar to

/etc/init.d/openvpn start

Another common reason for your VPN not running is that the Linux built-in firewall may limit some traffic to go through. Most of the time, a proper launching of the OpenVPN service will handle it. But, depending on the situation and the distribution, you may have to dig a bit further to find out what’s going on.

Those are only simple tips for Linux users who want to use a VPN connection.

How did I install BolehVPN on an Ubuntu Linux machine?

Since Ubuntu is one of the popular Linux distribution out there (and since this is the one I am using), I thought I could take you through the installation process. So for your reference purposes, I am using the 32bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (aka precise), on an Intel-based laptop.

For this article, I have uninstalled the OpenVPN package, but in your case, it may be that this package is already installed.

Pre-requisites – Install OpenVPN

So let’s first install the OpenVPN package

heryzo@xxxxx:~$ sudo apt-get install openvpn

Personally, I like configuring all network-related tasks via the network-manager. So, I like taking the following extra-step (which is not mandatory, but quite useful). For that purpose, we need to install the package “network-manager-openvpn.” You can do that via the following command:

heryzo@xxxx:~$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn

Download BolehVPN Ubuntu activation keys

Then let’s download the activation keys for BolehVPN. You can find it from your BolehVPN dashboard once you’ve purchased a package. This process will have you download a zip file containing different config files.

For this example, I’ve chosen to use the Canada landing point for my VPN connection, though I issued the following command

So let’s first copy all the files that have been downloaded to /etc/openvpn

heryzo@xxxx:/etc/openvpn$ sudo cp /home/heryzo/Downloads/bolehvpn/hidemyip/* .

heryzo@xxxx:/etc/openvpn$ sudo cp /home/heryzo/Downloads/bolehvpn/hidemyip/FullyRouted-Canada.ovpn hidemyip.conf

Be careful with this last step: the official documentation on BolehVPN says to rename the file to openvpn.conf. However, I’ve found some mismatch since the keys that I downloaded from the same BolehVPN named my certificate files into hidemyip.crt and hidemyip.key. It took me some minutes figuring out what was wrong with my settings. Until I found out that I had to rename the conf file similar to the key files, though the use of hidemyip.conf instead of openvpn.con

Start the OpenVPN service

Now let’s start the OpenVPN service by issuing the following command:

heryzo@xxxx:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/openvpn start

* Starting virtual private network daemon(s)… * Autostarting VPN ‘hidemyip’

Note that shell command mentions that it automatically started the “hidemyip” VPN tunnel.

Then we’re all set. Let’s check my public IP address to find out that I’m no more in Madagascar – and preferably, let’s hope it finds that I am somewhere in Canada.

It seems like we’re all set. Let’s try one of those favorite websites that don’t allow guys located in places like mine to surf on. Hulu, are you going to remind me again that your service is not available in my country? Let’s see.

So I could load one of the most popular movies on Hulu today – I chose “Master Chef” since I like cooking shows I’d better stop this streaming session with Master Chef. Otherwise, I’ll end up watching the whole episode- which is not the goal …

Conclusion

Anyway, I hope this little “how-to” would have helped Linux users have their BolehVPN connection all-setup. I’ve mentioned a little trick that, I’m pretty sure, some Linux users would have blocked them to get it going. Enjoy!

How many Linux users have we out there as readers? And what is your favorite Linux distribution? Feel free to share in the comment section.

Google Play is rolling out and given the awesome features it has gathered into one place. Well, it’s actually Google Market store, but they’re kind of re-branding it into Google Play. It’s becoming more and more interesting to get some apps from that marketplace.

The issue is that for some applications, if you are based in China, they just don’t show up in the search results, or you just can’t download and install them. Therefore, you need to find a way to unlock Google Play.

Unlock Google Play with a VPN service

So there are multiple options that you can try out: but let’s see how a VPN solution can be used. For this example, let’s use HideMyAss (in fact, you could use another VPN solution like ibVPN or PureVPN, but it’s just that I need to refer to one solution).

HideMyAss can be interesting in such a way that they provide you a 30-day money-back guarantee. This gives you some kind of insurance that they are trustworthy enough.  From the HideMyAss package, you can get a UK or US or Netherlands-based IP address: this is what you want to get for installing and running applications like Skype or Spotify from your China-based Android device. Now, it’s your call to choose if you want to directly go for a one-year contract, or if you want to choose the three months contract.

Access Google Play from China

So from here, you can do one of the following:

• either directly configure the VPN from your Android device: this is the most obvious way of doing things. HideMyAss has a good setup howto document for configuring it on an Android device. Moreover, we’ve covered it on some how-to-hide-ip articles.
• or configure the VPN on one of your computer (that is running the VPN), have the applications installed from Google Play then have Google Play automatically install the same application on the Android device that you own (that you should have added to your Google Play account)

Please note that you only have to use this VPN workout for some specific applications that aren’t available in China. Anyway, since it’s easy installing a VPN on your Android device, and since it is cheap, why not use it for some other purposes like playing online games with your Google Plus friends, or listen to music that some of your Google Plus friends would have shared with you. Those are new horizons that you can open once you use a VPN solution with your China-based android device.

Conclusion

As you would see, being based in China doesn’t mean that you can’t access all the internet resources that are available to some other users. You just need to have the right tools and know-how to use them. One of the major tools that you should consider when unlocking Google Play is the use of a VPN solution. As I told earlier, I chose HideMyAss for this case, but you could also use another VPN solution (ibVPN has great solutions too).

P.S: I’ve been told that there’s another way around this issue if you are in China: all you have to do is put a US-based SIM (or UK-based, or whichever non-blocked country) into your Android Phone, then just connect through Wi-Fi (not 3G or anything else). I haven’t personally tested it, so if some of the readers could test it from China and tell us the result, that would be nice

For once, let’s take some sidewalk in this article and consider one issue that most of our users are facing.

Considering that most of the readers of this blog are located in places where they have to do some tricks – by using VPN services like (HideMyAss, ibVPN, NordVpn or PureVPN are great options, by the way) – so as to access some useful online resources (Hulu, Netflix, iPlayer of BBC, Spotify, and so on and so forth), I thought it’d be interesting to do some extrapolation and see how far we can go with this trick. Learn about buying online from unsupported countries.

So what is the issue we want to address here? It’s pretty standard: let’s consider the guy that lives somewhere in a remote country that don’t have access to “common” things in developed nations, but who want to purchase something online.

What are the obstacles?

Let’s say the guy lives in Madagascar. Well, you can take any country that has the same environment, you get the idea: is an island (not a movie, BTW)  that don’t usually get access to services like Spotify (although I wrote an article earlier showing how I could access it from here). Moreover, considering that I want to buy some physical products online, chances are that the vendor doesn’t ship to this country.

First of all, depending on the online resources that he wants to access, it may happen that the same online resource is only available to people who are physically located in the US (for example).  So he has to find a way to access the online resource first.

Now, assuming he found a way for accessing the online resource (more on that on the following paragraph), he still has to provide a US-based address to ship the product to, then have that same product shipped to him in his own country.

Finally, the chances are that buying online isn’t as evident as it may seem from where he is.

Some solutions (although limited)

Let’s start with the easy one: access to the online resource. In fact, this is easy to solve since, with a VPN solution, he can pretend to be browsing from a US-based city thereby allowing him to overcome the location-limitation. It has a wide range of articles dealing with how to apply that solution.

Now when it comes to telling the vendor where to ship the product, the chances are that it can only be shipped to a US address. But here again, there are a lot of services that allow you to send and forward your products. Those usually are paid services but, solutions exist. You have to Google a bit and find such answers. You can even rent a US-based address and manage the emails online. The “only” requirement is that you send to the service provider a notarized proof of your country’s residential address – but that’s not difficult to have.

Then comes the online payment: more often than not, paying via Paypal should be possible from the country you are based in. At least, some banks will allow him to have an international Visa card that can then be associated with a Paypal account from which he can proceed to payment. In such cases where Paypal isn’t an option, you can still fall back to other solutions like moneybookers.com that is becoming more and more integrated into e-commerce sites.

Conclusion

As I told in the introduction, I’m going a bit sidewalk in this article, but I think this topic addresses an actual need from the readers of this blog. Now, the usual thing: your turn now, wanna share how you do it from your own country?

Feel free to add to the comment section and let us know about your “buying online” experience.

One of my readers asked me about this issue, but as I do not have Windows 7 installed on my computer, I’ve searched for a tutorial on Windows7Hacker.com.

How to setup Windows 7 VPN – PPTP

Step 1.  Open Network and Sharing Center from Control Panel

Step 2. Choose Set up a new connection or network.

Step 3. In the next window, choose to Use my Internet Connection (VPN)

Step 4. Type in the address in either domain name or IP address.

You should receive this information from the VPN service provider. Next, name the connection in the destination name box. Then click Next.

Step 5. In the next window, enter your username and password for the VPN access.

And click Create. You’re all set if you see the next window as below.

Step 6. To launch it, simply click the small network icon on the system tray at the bottom right corner.

Further, pick the connection we just created from the popup list, and Connect.

PPTP VPN alternatives

The PPTP VPN protocol is not the safest choice when it comes to security. It is well known that PPTP was cracked and it is rather unsafe to use it. Fortunately, there are better alternatives. You may either use SSTP, L2TP or OpenVPN.

The simplest way to use a Windows 7 VPN is to download the VPN apps from top VPN providers. These apps not only that simplify the connection (just click on a button, and the connection is automatically set up), but also offer the option to switch between different VPN protocols. Thus, you may choose that one that fits your need best.

You may find below a list of VPN services that I recommend:

What is a VPN?

­Basically, a VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. Instead of using a dedicated, real-world connection such as leased line, a VPN uses “virtual” connections routed through the Internet.

One of the best things about VPNs is that they allow computer users to access a network via an IP address other than the one that actually connects their computer to the Internet. This service is exposed to the general public through anonymous VPN servers.

Anonymous VPN servers

Anonymous VPN servers create an encrypted tunnel which is used to route your Internet traffic, hide IP address and protect it from ISPs or system administrators’ snooping. Your email and ICQ correspondence will be safely protected as well as your Internet activity. There are different companies offering anonymous VPN access, like HideMyAss, ibVPN, PureVPN.

Here are some advantages of using anonymous VPNs servers:

• Hide IP address for anonymous surfing
• Secure protection against data retention.
• Secure VPN connection also for WiFi/WLAN
• Used for all Internet applications – Web, Email, Usenet, VoIP, P2P, Emule, Torrent, tor, …
• Easy to install on MS Windows or Mac

Unlock geo-restricted content

VPN services can also be used to unlock geo-restricted websites and streaming channels. Due to the fact that such content is restricted based on the IP address of the user, by changing the IP address using a VPN service the restriction is bypassed.

Conclusion

To sum up, VPN technology uses encrypted channels and anonymous VPN servers to provide secure access to the Internet. Further, extra benefits include unlocking restricted content and protection against hackers.

How does it work?

The way it works is this:  Your computer accesses the internet through a modem.  If you have a network connection in your home or office, then you may have a router that acts as a single modem for every computer in the network.  That modem or router is assigned an IP address that tells any particular website that is accessed exactly where you are, who you are, and most importantly, what else you’ve been doing on the Internet.

Why hide my IP address?

Whether you’re downloading free music or emailing an old girlfriend (if you’re married), you might want to consider hiding your IP address.  This way, you can be completely sure that whatever you’re doing online, your secret life will remain hidden for as long as you want it to.

>> Are VPNs legal? Countries where VPN usage is illegal.

There are a lot of things to be aware of when you’re hiding your IP. You could be doing something illegal without knowing it. A lot of sites have weird rules in their TOS; you have to be aware of these and make sure you protect yourself. There happen to be quite a few good things that come from hiding your IP as well. We’ve compiled a small list of the pros and cons that come with hiding your IP address.

Hide IP Pros

• You can have more than one account on sites that restrict it.
• If you are banned from a forum, you can create a new account using different IP.
• You can post comments on forums/sites/blogs using a fake identity.
• You can vote multiple times (e.g., vote for your photo on a photo sharing site)
• People will have a tough time finding out who you are.
• Will be able to download more things at once.

Hide IP Cons

• If using a proxy, you’re trusting someone with your actual IP address.
• You can be sued by sites for violating TOS.
• Not allowed by some places, and will result in bans.

As you can tell, there are many things associated with hiding your IP address. This list that we are providing you is just a few of the pros and cons.

What do you think? Should you hide your IP address while browsing the Internet?

If you want to hide your IP address in total security and anonymity, you should check HideMyAss, ExpressVPN, PureVPN, HideIpVPN, or ibVPN.

The conclusion is yours. Do you need to hide your IP address or not?