You are probably well aware of the fact that knowing an IP address of a computer reveals a lot of things about that user. The basic theory of the nets and the Internet is the fact that uploaded and downloaded packets carry your destination address and can be easily used to track you down. Fortunately, there are different ways of hiding your IP or at least making it difficult for others to track where you are located.
Proxy Services
These are used to provide anonymity to users that hiding your IP address before going online. Since not all proxies are reliable, it is always a good idea to check that your IP address is, in fact, anonymous by using the tool on this website. Before connecting to a proxy, check your IP address and then do that again after you connect. The IP should now be different.
Anonymizers
These are usually paid proxy services that have their own Web interface allowing you to hide your IP addresses from online resources. Using anonymizers is certainly great if you are looking for high-level anonymity but it comes at a cost and at slow speeds.
Cookie Technology
Cookies are small files that are stored locally on your PC and are used by websites and online resources to learn about your web habits, follow your Web routes, and can ultimately be used to locate you. Cookies are only about 4KB in size but for anyone looking for anonymity, they will want to ensure that no cookies are saved on their PC.
Even with special access limitation to preserve data confidentiality that only allows servers that put the data in the cookies to access it, it is easy to see how this information can be used maliciously. The browser options can be used to disable cookies and prevent websites from saving data on your PC.
“Hide IP” Software
The software can be used to manage your proxy service features and configure your setting to provide anonymity. The use of software as opposed to accessing a proxy directly enables the set of features that you may easily bypass, especially if you don’t know much about proxies. There are many software packages available online to help you hide your IP.
Socks Technology
This usually provides total anonymity, in principle. Socks technology uses the socks-protocols where a socks-server receives requests and re-targets the returned data back. The communication between a PC and the socks-server takes place using special protocols designated as Socks4, Socks5, etc effectively making the user’s IP address impossible to guess.
Hiding your IP address and staying protected is an ongoing process and keeping up with the latest on computer security will help you stay ahead of the curve.