Hide IP Address

March 4, 2007 1:12 PM

Is there a Web site or free program I can use to hide my IP address when roaming the Internet? I would like some level of anonymity when visiting some forums.
posted by cainiarb to Computers & Internet (23 answers total)

Tor
posted by contraption at 1:15 PM on March 4, 2007

fgi
posted by humuhumu at 1:33 PM on March 4, 2007

Try Googling anonymous browsing.
posted by paduasoy at 2:11 PM on March 4, 2007

If you're on Windows, use Torpark, which is a version of Firefox which used the aforementioned Tor network to completely anonymize your web browsing traffic.

It's slow as hell to browse that way, but that's the price you pay for privacy.
posted by melorama at 2:18 PM on March 4, 2007

Tor is a solution. For windows use it together with privoxy and vidalia. There is also a TOR button plug in for Firefox.

If you need just something quick then use Anonymouse

But you never now who is behind such a service... I guess the CIA/NSA/FBI would be the fist one to offer such a service for "anonymous browsing"... ;-)
posted by yoyo_nyc at 2:30 PM on March 4, 2007

Response by poster: But you never now who is behind such a service... I guess the CIA/NSA/FBI would be the fist one to offer such a service for "anonymous browsing"... ;-)

Thanks! I am not doing THAT kind of browsing... just a site where I was once a member and would just as soon not be "recognized" if I sneak a peek in every now and them. No need to feed egos.
posted by cainiarb at 2:48 PM on March 4, 2007

Hi Cainiarb,

Thanks! I am not doing THAT kind of browsing...

Yes, but a "little bit security", a ""little bit privacy" or a "little bit anonymousity" is like to be a "little bit pregnant".

But I guess for your purpose Anonymouse should work well.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 3:00 PM on March 4, 2007

Google We Accelerator does a reasonably good job of hiding you behind a proxy server.
posted by seanyboy at 3:24 PM on March 4, 2007

No, don't use Anonymouse. It doesn't always work as advertised depending on the web sites you visit, which I verified in an e-mail exchange last year with one of the guys who runs the service. In the referer logs for a blog I used to maintain, I plainly saw where a visitor had attempted to hide behind Anonymouse before visiting the blog. Much hilarity ensued in the state of Connecticut.
posted by emelenjr at 3:46 PM on March 4, 2007

No, it doesn't. Most proxies that aren't specifically designed to hide IP addresses happily tell the server what IP address the request is really for.

I know this because I build a system at work to match students to email viruses by IP address.
posted by krisjohn at 3:46 PM on March 4, 2007

(Damn you emelenjr, my response was supposed to be to seanyboy.)
posted by krisjohn at 3:47 PM on March 4, 2007

@ Emelenjr

Can you back your claim? Otherwise I doubt this and the only problem could be cockies.
posted by yoyo_nyc at 3:51 PM on March 4, 2007

What an apache log file looks like with anonymouse:

www.example.com 10.0.0.1 - - [04/Mar/2007:18:55:13 -0500] "GET /index.html HTTP/1.0" 200 1357 "-" "http://Anonymouse.org/ (Unix)"

There is no referer (it is listed as "-", no matter what it was), and all the browser info is wiped.

Either way, emelenjr's claims about referer logs are clearly manufactured.
posted by PEAK OIL at 4:01 PM on March 4, 2007

Cookies aren't a problem either. You are surfing anonymouse.org. Your browser will not send a cookie for SomeOtherDomain to anonymouse.org.
posted by PEAK OIL at 4:06 PM on March 4, 2007

@ Peak Oil

I am not an IP expert, but as I see the cockie Problem:

You access a discussion board website with yout browser and and the website sets a cockie. The next day you access the same website via Anonymouse.org or Tor and then your anonymosity is compromised since the user can be identified by the previous set cockie.

Am I wrong?
posted by yoyo_nyc at 4:09 PM on March 4, 2007

yoyo_nyc: tor doesn't really solve the problems in whole, anonymouse does.

For anonymouse, the thing you need to understand is that cookies are set per *site*. So let's examine your scenario:

1) You visit SomeSite.com and get a cookie for SomeSite.com
2) You visit SomeSite.com through Anonymouse.

The thing is, in step 2, you are *not* visiting SomeSite.com. You are visiting Anonymouse.org, which happens to be making a copy of SomeSite.com for you. But your cookies never come into play, because your browser is pointed straight at SomeSite.com.

Tor has the ability to pass all sorts of private data. It can pass javascript, or flash, or cookies, or all sorts of identifiable things. This is why it is generally used with something like privoxy, which blocks all that crap out.

So tor + properly configured privoxy is secure. Tor + improperly configured privoxy, or Tor alone... is useful for IP obfuscation, but not for identity protection.
posted by PEAK OIL at 4:20 PM on March 4, 2007

yoyo, you're supposed to wipe your cockie after you take your leakie.
posted by bruce at 4:22 PM on March 4, 2007

@ Bruce

Don't worry, I will and I have cookie culler installed but not everybody does.

@ Odinsdream
Sorry, I am not a native speaker...
posted by yoyo_nyc at 4:26 PM on March 4, 2007

theres also stealther which, at the press of a button, does not save any cache, form info, history, cookies, nothing. works nicely.
posted by Mach5 at 7:48 PM on March 4, 2007

Dial up accounts have dynamic IP addresses. Sign up for a free or low rent dial up account for your anonymous surfing needs.
posted by JJ86 at 6:25 AM on March 5, 2007

Dial up accounts have dynamic IP addresses. Sign up for a free or low rent dial up account for your anonymous surfing needs.

They also have records of who logged in, and when. Additionally, most of them come from the same network block, thus making it very obvious that it is the same person, even if the IP changes slightly.

Not really that anonymous.
posted by PEAK OIL at 7:28 AM on March 5, 2007

Not free, but cheap - and better than putting your trust in random proxies: relakks.com / anonymous VPN.
posted by bhance at 7:34 AM on March 5, 2007

PEAK OIL mentioned:
They also have records of who logged in, and when. Additionally, most of them come from the same network block, thus making it very obvious that it is the same person, even if the IP changes slightly.

Not really that anonymous.

Not fully anonymous but the OP did say they were only seeking a level of anonymity. For criminal purposes obviously this may not work but for average anonymity, where you aren't concerned about someone subpoening the ISP records, it will suffice.

Having worked as a mod on some forums, we always had problems blocking single users using AOL without affecting nearby users in the same city when solely going by the IP address.

So for the OP purposes, it is a viable solution. Using a free service like Netzero is hard to beat.
posted by JJ86 at 8:08 AM on March 5, 2007