Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)? in Security

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:41:16 EDT

said by foxsteve :

If you are qualified hacker, you can hack a few computers and servers and hide your IP at sending your emails. This kind of proxy may not keep log file - if your qualified...

Unless of corse that computer was already infected with nasties that log every thing heh
--
Evil does exist and it has a face to often that face is one that should look on their child with love in their eyes.

Instead only hate exists in those eyes.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:27:01 EDT

foxsteve : If you are qualified hacker, you can hack a few computers and servers and hide your IP at sending your emails. This kind of proxy may not keep log file - if your qualified...

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:24:25 EDT

novaflare :

said by THX 1138 :

I hope I'm not diverting this thread, but I, too, worry *a little bit* about privacy. I haven't wanted to change my IP address, but it seems that advertisers know where I've been and are constantly targeting advertising at the sites I visit based on my IP address.

For example, if I visit a mortgage site, every big ad I see on well-managed sites after that seems to want to sell me a mortgage. I once had a Bose credit card, and it was sponsored by a bank that was also known for it's sub-prime loans. After that, all my other bank sites seemed to offer me only pictures of their happy customers who where from minorities. No majority faces anywhere. (This is neither good nor bad, but it does suggest some sort of profiling, if you will.)

I regularly clean out my cookies, but I feel that there is some tracking of IP addresses and my browsing habits that influences what I see on the web, and that's just a little disconcerting. I'd like to think I'm not paranoid, and I'm not ashamed of where I go on the web, but it just bugs me that there might be a marketing file assembled around my IP address. If that's true, then an anonymous IP address would be nice; kind of like a junk email address.

...or am I all wet about the technology?

Profiling happens more on the internet than you think. Many major sites esp banks loan sites etc all do it (for the most part).No matter what any one says other wise profiling is a crazy useful tool. As for the legitimacy of it well you do i do we all do it to a point when we meet some one for the first time. When you walk by some one on the street and they are acxting suspicious dont you at least consider that they might be dangerous? Thats all profiling. This is somethign in our nature thats always been there and it wont be going any where any time soon. Call it a through back to when we lived in caves as cave men or do to learned back in the days when opresion was common place like late bc periods or early ad periods.

Its now in our nature and it will stay we are just adopting for other purposes.

As for the whole hiding your ip address its a waste of time even if you could. The only time i ever used a proxy is when i posted on some old timey hacker news groups. Learned really fast posting with your ip visable was not the best idea. Simply put posted on the old ahm news group and with in hours had a nice little text file on my desk top instructing me to turn off PWS personal web server heres how to do it. I think that was like 3 months after i was online full time. Before the days when a firewall was a absolute must.

Im a irc freak on irc all the time day and night ive seen some really whacked things isps do and i can see why some might want to hide their ips. I mean ffs when your host mask in irc is somenumbers-hametownxxxyx-brtn-jhns.ipaddy.neo.rr.com um yeh i kind of wanted to hide my ip to lol.

Some numbers turned out to be a baddly obscured street address on hametown road brtn barberton jhns jhonson road meanign the router for my connection was on hame town and jhonson road (the corner of to be specific. I live less than a mile from there on rock cut. It would not take much work to find exactly where i live by simply following the live connection. Hell i bet some oen could have used soem minor electronics to pick the damn signal up and trace it strait to me. Ever see a telphone repairman tracking a break in the line? They use this little metal detector looking thing name escapes me at moment. But it reads the tones on the line and they simply move the thing down the line till they find the spot with no tones or missing tones.

I called time warner over this and told them this was not a good thing to be displaying to the net at large. Infact it was not suppose to be showning up like that.

To the op if you have some simmilar thing showing on your ip yeh id be pissed to and i would call your isp and give them the what for.
--
Evil does exist and it has a face to often that face is one that should look on their child with love in their eyes.

Instead only hate exists in those eyes.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:45:02 EDT

Doctor Olds :

said by THX 1138 :

it seems that advertisers know where I've been and are constantly targeting advertising at the sites I visit based on my IP address.

For example, if I visit a mortgage site, every big ad I see on well-managed sites after that seems to want to sell me a mortgage. I once had a Bose credit card, and it was sponsored by a bank that was also known for it's sub-prime loans. After that, all my other bank sites seemed to offer me only pictures of their happy customers who where from minorities.

You don't get cookies from websites ad servers if you proactively block them. You only get cookies from the sites you want to visit if you are proactive. ;) You need ad blocking software.

[att=1]

Regards,

Doctor Olds
--
What’s the point of owning a supercar if you can’t scare yourself stupid from time to time?

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:01:17 EDT

anti_mary555 : You can use this
»www.privacyconnector.com
It uses VPN server instead of Proxy.
Can hide your IP in all softwares, not just web browsing

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:18:17 EDT

jvmorris :

said by greenman3 :

. . . oops, sorry, i didnt realize that was you that i hacked :-)

Gotcha!!! :D :D :D
--
Regards,
Joseph V. Morris

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:29:11 EDT

greenman3 : actually this is a somewhat interesting thread.

while i agree that its impossible to be totally invisable, i also see no reason NOT to take basic precautions.
there are people out there that can and will try to get into you machine for one or another reason.
AND, if its hard to get to your machine, and easier to get into someone elses, then the crooks will go looking elsewhere.
And if they want into YOUR particualr machine, then its a matter of how tight your security is VS how bad they want to hack you, and how good a hacker they are.

RElated...
Didnt AOL used to work as a proxy ? i havent used them in like 10 years, but i could swear i remember that

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:18:07 EDT

greenman3 :

Yes, well . . . and then there was the rather well-known Federal Government organization that I once worked for. I was rather astonished to find that my workstation IP was a public IP address and (based on a bit of subsequent investigation) not only visible from the 'net, but fully accessible! What makes it even worse was that this was supposed to be a high-tech Fed organization -- well, that and the fact that my workstation was in their Software Development Center. I decided then and there that, like my hometown, this was a good place to be from -- and immediately.

oops, sorry, i didnt realize that was you that i hacked :-)

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:43:57 EDT

NetFixer :

said by webfootguy :

The RIAA goes after the slowest/most obvious person (as well as hacker/criminal elements). It is a question of exposure to risks. My humble opinion.

And that (in my not so humble opinion) is the primary reason for the many questions asked here and in other forums regarding "how can I hide my IP address?".

While there may actually be a few human rights activists in places like the PRC who have a real need to hide because of fear for their personal safety, that is a rare exception (and those folks already have physical and cyber hiding down to a science, and don't need to ask how to do it in forums like this).
--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:10:41 EDT

webfootguy : Yes, but the privacy protections under their laws are far better then afforded in the US plus it is possible to pay them anonymously and not enter any personal info. All sensitive traffic should be over a SSL link anyway (be sure to read the cert info carefully to avoid the man-in-the middle attacks). I think the strategy here is like being chased by the bear. You don't have to outrun the bear, just not be the slowest person. The RIAA goes after the slowest/most obvious person (as well as hacker/criminal elements). It is a question of exposure to risks. My humble opinion.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:40:18 EDT

Cudni :

said by webfootguy :

You still need to be running a firewall but a least all your traffic is encrypted and not associated with your ISP (Which will give you up if requested by law officers). Our laws do not apply to other countries so you are safe from "investigation".

Which they will similarly give up if requested by their law officers
»https://www.relakks.com/faq/legal/

Cudni
--
Some are born to failure, others achieve it, all deserve it.
Help yourself so God can help you.
MVP, Microsoft Windows Security 2006

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:36:45 EDT

EGeezer : Yeah, I'd definitely feel really good passing my sensitive traffic through some server operated by someone I don't know whose contact information consists of a postal address in Sweden and an email address.

Besides, the OP's title post is
Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?
--
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 12:18:33 EDT

jvmorris :

said by nixen :

. . . Ugh. Don't talk to me about Federal offices. Every time I have to work at a Federal site, I see stuff that makes me shake my head. Most of the .mil sites seem to be decently and fairly consistently cordoned-off (sometimes the word "byzantine" comes to mind).

Yes, and on other occasions, I suspect the word "neanderthal" comes to mind. :)
--
Regards,
Joseph V. Morris

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:59:29 EDT

nixen :

said by webfootguy :

Try using a VPN service like www.relakks.com. For a few $$ a month, you get an IP address that is not easily tracable to you (useful for P2P activities). You still need to be running a firewall but a least all your traffic is encrypted and not associated with your ISP (Which will give you up if requested by law officers). Our laws do not apply to other countries so you are safe from "investigation".

Of course, remember to only pay them with throw-away credit cards or "use once" credit card numbers. It would suck if some "our laws do not apply" company decided to leak your financial information...

Not saying that you will get screwed. Just pointing out that, at some point, you have to trust someone with your information. Personally, I'd rather give out my IP address which is only marginally identifying than giving out information necessary to "open an account".

-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:55:23 EDT

webfootguy : Try using a VPN service like www.relakks.com. For a few $$ a month, you get an IP address that is not easily tracable to you (useful for P2P activities). You still need to be running a firewall but a least all your traffic is encrypted and not associated with your ISP (Which will give you up if requested by law officers). Our laws do not apply to other countries so you are safe from "investigation".

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:44:54 EDT

nixen :

said by jvmorris :

Yes, well . . . and then there was the rather well-known Federal Government organization that I once worked for. I was rather astonished to find that my workstation IP was a public IP address and (based on a bit of subsequent investigation) not only visible from the 'net, but fully accessible! :o What makes it even worse was that this was supposed to be a high-tech Fed organization -- well, that and the fact that my workstation was in their Software Development Center. ;) I decided then and there that, like my hometown, this was a good place to be from -- and immediately. :D

Ugh. Don't talk to me about Federal offices. Every time I have to work at a Federal site, I see stuff that makes me shake my head. Most of the .mil sites seem to be decently and fairly consistently cordoned-off (sometimes the word "byzantine" comes to mind).

-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:41:33 EDT

jvmorris : Well, I think all the truly useful information in this thread is up in the first five or six responses to the OP.

Still, couldn't let this pass. ;)

said by nixen :

said by THX 1138 :

Yes, thanks; that's what I suspected. My home DSL service has dynamic IP addressing, but my computer at work has a static IP address. I sometimes do banking and other online financial chores at work, and that's where I observe this IP address tracking.

However, if your work is like many work locations, your desktop IP isn't the IP that the website sees. Chances are, your work either uses internal proxies or does NATing at the firewall. So, the IP address remote sites see is either that of the proxy or the NAT.

Yes, well . . . and then there was the rather well-known Federal Government organization that I once worked for. I was rather astonished to find that my workstation IP was a public IP address and (based on a bit of subsequent investigation) not only visible from the 'net, but fully accessible! :o What makes it even worse was that this was supposed to be a high-tech Fed organization -- well, that and the fact that my workstation was in their Software Development Center. ;) I decided then and there that, like my hometown, this was a good place to be from -- and immediately. :D
--
Regards,
Joseph V. Morris

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:39:36 EDT

nixen :

said by yesucan :

Yes you can. Just do a google search for somethin like hide ip. You'll find all kind of interesting stuff like wardriving, tunneling, Tor(not a proxy imo), vpn's etc... Don't listen to people who love to censor things.

Wardriving isn't exactly a practical "solution", now is it? And, you're still not exactly anonymous if someone really wants to track you. If you're connected, you're trackable.

Tunneling... The endpoints still need to know each other.

If you consider Tor to not be a proxy, then your "o" ain't worth too damned much. Whether you bounce through a single, static server or through a variable mesh of servers, you've proxied your connection.

All a VPN does is protects the content of your connection between two endpoints. The VPN server still knows who you are and the servers on the other end of the VPN know what your VPN IP is. It can still ultimately be tracked back.

-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:27:29 EDT

nixen :

said by THX 1138 :

Sometimes I feel like the banks, credit card companies, utilities, etc. are trying to figure out exactly who I am (marketing-wise),

That's because they are.

said by THX 1138 :

and are assuming that they can tell who I am by the sites I visit.

That is the theory.

said by THX 1138 :

Trouble is...they've got it wrong, as far as I can see. It's made me conscious of the privacy thing, even though I don't think there's anything I can do about it.

Bingo. Well, you can use proxy services, but then you're entrusting your privacy to them.

It's not a perfect world. But it all comes down to, if you want "stuff" (be it pizza, postcards or packets) to get to you, "stuff" has to know how to get there.

-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 11:19:18 EDT

nixen :

said by freedom_rings :

Hey, how 'bout letting your car insurance company put a gps tracking unit in your vehicle too? You never speed or break any traffic rules, right?

Hate to break the news to you, but if your car's less than a decade old, you've already got a telemetry device in your car.

-tom
--
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." -Louis D Brandeis

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:58:09 EDT

Crypto :

said by ElJay :

Routing your internet traffic through an unknown proxy server would be like giving a random guy in the street that GPS tracker in your car, in my opinion.

+1 on this.

the actual security risk posed to you by routing all your traffic through a proxy server controlled by an unknown party is far greater than the risk posed by your IP address being 'visible'.

The internet needs IP-to-IP communications to work, period.
If you dont think this is the case, your understanding of TCP/IP is flawed.

I'd recommend that.
--
I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to encrypt it.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 10:48:38 EDT

ElJay :

said by freedom_rings :

I value my privacy and won't be giving it up anytime soon. Just because someone values privacy doesn't mean they have anything to hide. Not everybody wants to sell their soul to the devil, clearly some people just don't give a sh!t though.

Huh?! At best an IP address is going to show who your ISP is and possibly what town you're in or near. That's like complaining that you have a license plate on your car and a sticker from the dealership you bought it from. Routing your internet traffic through an unknown proxy server would be like giving a random guy in the street that GPS tracker in your car, in my opinion.

I worry more about the privacy of my USPS mail than I do my internet goings. Heck the Google ads bot is probably confused about me anyway since in the same session I'll search for pay day loans and then find a private jet to charter.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:54:27 EDT

anon : Yes you can. Just do a google search for somethin like hide ip. You'll find all kind of interesting stuff like wardriving, tunneling, Tor(not a proxy imo), vpn's etc... Don't listen to people who love to censor things.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:26:21 EDT

elios :

sounds like you have some spyware on your box to me

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:05:47 EDT

Psicop : Not just malicious, for example bypassing filters set at work or school. Not that I promote this kind of behaviour. It's just a mere example.

Regards.

quote:
Hey, the pizza guy is at the door, and I didn't even order one. He said it was for some guy named Daniel.

;)

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:13:00 EDT

NetFixer :

said by M A R K :

Why cant he do what i do, i just put a proxy in fire-fox and im all good.

I would ask if you noticed that the title of this thread is Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?, but I won't bother. :hmm:
--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:48:00 EDT

M A R K : Why cant he do what i do, i just put a proxy in fire-fox and im all good.
--
Zionism is a hate crime

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:45:55 EDT

odreian615 : torpark browser

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 03:43:04 EDT

maartena : There is only one real way of "hiding" your IP address:

Cancel your Internet subscription.

You are going to have to accept the fact that if you wish to communicate in any way on the internet, that your IP address will be communicated with pretty much anything you communicate with.

There are ways to "spoof" your IP address on IRC chats if you have 1) another server or shell somewhere else, 2) know linux and 3) know how to bounce. But even that doesn't really protect you, it just looks nice in some cases.

Deal with it. Or go to the library from now on, reading a book and mailing an actual letter will not leave an IP address anywhere :)
--
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:14:53 EDT

M A R K : I like to hide my IP when trying to visit sites that cant be seen from america.
--
Zionism is a hate crime

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:05:33 EDT

smoky_129 : i may not be the sharpest spoon in the knife drawer but i don't see how spam has any thing to with your ip addy only spam i get is in my email which is yahoo msn gmail or snail mail my primary email may get 1 or 2 that gets deleted as soon as they are in my inbox and with firefox i rarely get pop-ups but then again i don't sign up with every porn site that comes my way :)

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:49:18 EDT

astirusty :

said by Daniel :

Hiding your IP address on the Internet is much like giving a fake address when you place a pizza delivery order. Sure, you'll trick the other side, but you won't ever get a pizza.

What about ordering 65,536 pizzas and having them sent to different addresses, only one of which is yours? ;)

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:38:30 EDT

totamak : Especially when it relies on header information the user can manipulate. Right now it thinks I'm using Internet Explorer 7 on Windows 3.1. :D

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:33:01 EDT

EGeezer : Your pizza analogy is excellent!

But what's pizza without beer? Well, I am reminded of this explanation of DNS cache poisoning.

credit Daniel F. Boyd for his fraud analogy in the above link
--
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:59:35 EDT

Daniel : This comes up so often that I've done a short little writeup on it:

»dmiessler.com/study/hide_ip

Mods: feel free to add it to the FAQ if you find it worthy.
--
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:18:22 EDT

THX 1138 :

said by EGeezer :

Unless you have purchased internet service with fixed IP(s),you have a dynamic IP that will periodically change. Sometimes you can force the change by powering down your modem, or calling your ISP to request they flush the connection and assign another IP from their pool.

Yes, thanks; that's what I suspected. My home DSL service has dynamic IP addressing, but my computer at work has a static IP address. I sometimes do banking and other online financial chores at work, and that's where I observe this IP address tracking.

Sometimes I feel like the banks, credit card companies, utilities, etc. are trying to figure out exactly who I am (marketing-wise), and are assuming that they can tell who I am by the sites I visit. Trouble is...they've got it wrong, as far as I can see. It's made me conscious of the privacy thing, even though I don't think there's anything I can do about it.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:34:57 EDT

La Luna :

said by freedom_rings :

said by BlitzenZeus:
"Unless your trying to do something malicious there is no reason to hide your ip address."

Lol, why don't you just let the police put a camera in your living room then? Your not doing anything wrong, right?

Hey, how 'bout letting your car insurance company put a gps tracking unit in your vehicle too? You never speed or break any traffic rules, right?

Maybe you could be the first candidate for a rf transmitting corneal inplant, so everything you do can be monitored right through your own eyes. After all your completely innocent of any possible wrong doing, right?

I value my privacy and won't be giving it up anytime soon. Just because someone values privacy doesn't mean they have anything to hide. Not everybody wants to sell their soul to the devil, clearly some people just don't give a sh!t though.

That's wonderful.....it's also irrelevant to this thread and the question that was asked.
--
~~Well, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, just like me...~~

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:30:18 EDT

La Luna :

said by lovewomen :

Use a software firewall like ZoneAlarm. There is a setting in Zone Alarm which you can hide your IP address.

That hides your IP only from ZA Labs ("when applicable").
--
~~Well, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, just like me...~~

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:33:02 EDT

EGeezer :

said by THX 1138 :

... I regularly clean out my cookies, but I feel that there is some tracking of IP addresses and my browsing habits that influences what I see on the web, and that's just a little disconcerting ...

I also toss my cookies occasionally - :D

... an anonymous IP address would be nice; kind of like a junk email address.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:52:49 EDT

THX 1138 : I hope I'm not diverting this thread, but I, too, worry *a little bit* about privacy. I haven't wanted to change my IP address, but it seems that advertisers know where I've been and are constantly targeting advertising at the sites I visit based on my IP address.

For example, if I visit a mortgage site, every big ad I see on well-managed sites after that seems to want to sell me a mortgage. I once had a Bose credit card, and it was sponsored by a bank that was also known for it's sub-prime loans. After that, all my other bank sites seemed to offer me only pictures of their happy customers who where from minorities. No majority faces anywhere. (This is neither good nor bad, but it does suggest some sort of profiling, if you will.)

I regularly clean out my cookies, but I feel that there is some tracking of IP addresses and my browsing habits that influences what I see on the web, and that's just a little disconcerting. I'd like to think I'm not paranoid, and I'm not ashamed of where I go on the web, but it just bugs me that there might be a marketing file assembled around my IP address. If that's true, then an anonymous IP address would be nice; kind of like a junk email address.

...or am I all wet about the technology?

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:29:54 EDT

Mats :

said by lovewomen :

Use a software firewall like ZoneAlarm. There is a setting in Zone Alarm which you can hide your IP address.

That is not true.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:18:03 EDT

NetFixer :

said by lovewomen :

Use a software firewall like ZoneAlarm. There is a setting in Zone Alarm which you can hide your IP address.

--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:09:14 EDT

lovewomen : Use a software firewall like ZoneAlarm. There is a setting in Zone Alarm which you can hide your IP address.

said by pvsurfer :

Hopefully, this is an appropriate forum for this concern (if not, please advise)...

I am behind a Westell 327W wireless router and Verizon is my ISP. I have the router's firewall configured to its 'High' setting, yet it is not hiding my IP address! Consequently, some private information (City, State, Domain, etc.) is out there for all to see.

I realize I could hide my IP by using a proxy service, but is there no 'direct' way to hide my IP?

Thanks.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:01:26 EDT

NetFixer :

said by EGeezer :

If you set your IP address to 127.0.0.0 you can get rid of that pesky identification...

Shame on you for suggesting that! Don't you know that there are hackers lurking on the interweb who routinely attack that IP address? :o
--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:50:26 EDT

EGeezer :

You can always use some anonymous proxy which could easily be operated by the CIA who just wants to see what you're up to - or operated by some dipwad in Roumania who sniffs your traffic for personal information, user IDs and passwords ;)

But you can even get around that. If you set your IP address to 127.0.0.0 you can get rid of that pesky identification...
--
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:19:14 EDT

anon : said by BlitzenZeus:
"Unless your trying to do something malicious there is no reason to hide your ip address."

Lol, why don't you just let the police put a camera in your living room then? Your not doing anything wrong, right?

Hey, how 'bout letting your car insurance company put a gps tracking unit in your vehicle too? You never speed or break any traffic rules, right?

Maybe you could be the first candidate for a rf transmitting corneal inplant, so everything you do can be monitored right through your own eyes. After all your completely innocent of any possible wrong doing, right?

I value my privacy and won't be giving it up anytime soon. Just because someone values privacy doesn't mean they have anything to hide. Not everybody wants to sell their soul to the devil, clearly some people just don't give a sh!t though.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:55:37 EDT

NetFixer :

said by BlitzenZeus :

That dynamic image never gets old when your dealing with paranoia :)

On the other hand even the paranoid can be targeted.

What you see is sometimes also visible to others. ;)
--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:41:56 EDT

NetFixer :

said by BlitzenZeus :

It is your rDNS, which is set by your isp, and nothing is going to change that. Also your isp uses dhcp so your ip address changes will change own its own.

For a typical residential ISP, that is true. It is not however always true as is shown by this rDNS lookup for my static IP address.


Trying "234.0.134.66.in-addr.arpa"
Using domain server:
Name: atlngahp-pub-ns1.covad.net
Address: 64.105.202.138#53
Aliases: 
 
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37290
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;234.0.134.66.in-addr.arpa.	IN	PTR
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
234.0.134.66.in-addr.arpa. 3600	IN	PTR	dcs-net.net.
 
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
0.134.66.in-addr.arpa.	3600	IN	NS	ns4.covad.com.
0.134.66.in-addr.arpa.	3600	IN	NS	ns3.covad.com.
 
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns3.covad.com.		12719	IN	A	66.134.75.38
ns4.covad.com.		20132	IN	A	66.134.75.39

The generic rDNS return value would look something like "h-66-134-0-234.atlngahp.covad.net" had I not requested a custom PTR record for my static IP.

Of course the actual IP address 66.123.0.234 is still publicly visible as it must be for my connection to work, so the rDNS/PTR value still does not in any way hide an IP address, nor does having a static IP address.

--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:40:49 EDT

greenman3 : heres a quick explanation that might help...
»www.auditmypc.com/whats-my-ip.asp
behind a router, "usually" its at least hard to see your PRIVATE IP
to find what that is, go to a command prompt, and type

ipconfig

if it doesnt show up on this page (java required)
»www.auditmypc.com/ip-address.asp
then you are pretty damnn safe IMHO.
I run a political website, and ive had lots of people trying to hack me.
Actually, mine (private IP) shows up, any suggestions on how to prevent this ?
I am behind a modem and a router...

anyway, heres some more reading on internal IP...
»www.auditmypc.com/internal-ip.html

also, speaking of spam,

a bit off topic, but heres a great tool to bust the bots.
»www.auditmypc.com/freescan/antispam.html
robots scan this page and get bunches of bad email addys,
and links to more pages of bad email addys,
and their database of addys is worthless.
i have a link to this on my homepage so i can post my email addy there with no problems.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:24:05 EDT

BlitzenZeus : That dynamic image never gets old when your dealing with paranoia :)

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:21:25 EDT

brianiscool : Lets just send some spoofed echo packets to a broadcast. Does this still work ? lol

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:21:10 EDT

pvsurfer : I usually learn a lot from this site and this thread wasn't an exception...

So thanks to all of you, I am enlightened and a special thanks to Daniel who also gave me an idea for dinner!
--
"that's not a bug, that's a random feature!"

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:16:07 EDT

EGeezer : Hey, the pizza guy is at the door, and I didn't even order one. He said it was for some guy named Daniel.

Muahaaahaaa.... ;)
--
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.

Aristotle

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:08:36 EDT

BlitzenZeus : The day after I placed an order on amazon.com I was getting mortgage spam with my name, and current address... The funny part was it was obvious I had an apartment number in the address which they didn't check for.

It was the company who amazon placed the order through that sold my information to spammers, and the address was spam free before that event.

Yes, robots looking for e-mail addresses on web pages/usenet/etc are a huge problem.
--
My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:05:32 EDT

La Luna :

said by dave :

I nominate Daniel 's response as the definitive answer to the question "why can't I hide my IP address?".

Yes, along with this:

said by BlitzenZeus :
It is not an invasion of privacy, its a matter of a location of the node, and if it happens to fall in the same city where you live, that is the way it happens.

--
~~Well, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, I think you're crazy, just like me...~~

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:02:56 EDT

dave : I nominate Daniel 's response as the definitive answer to the question "why can't I hide my IP address?".
--
Microsoft Security MVP, 2005-2007.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:00:45 EDT

TomR_in_MI :

said by BlitzenZeus :

In reality the most spam comes from retailers, and resellers from online orders.

From what I have seen over the last six years or so is that most spam comes from email addresses that were posted on web pages or in usenet groups. I have a domain that I use only for giving out unique email addresses and have done some testing.
Edit: Well, unless you were referring to pron retailers reselling your address, yeah, that is probably another source but I didn't include that in my research ;)
--
Your computer can help find a cure for cancer. Check out Team Discovery

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:52:58 EDT

TomR_in_MI :

said by pvsurfer :

I strongly suspect it triggers a lot of the spam emails I receive.

For what it is worth, there is no way that someone is going to send you spam if all they know is your IP address.
--
Your computer can help find a cure for cancer. Check out Team Discovery

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:51:42 EDT

NetFixer :

said by pvsurfer :

To me it's simply a matter of privacy violation. Besides which, I strongly suspect it triggers a lot of the spam emails I receive.

Without a public IP address, you can not connect to the internet. Your IP address does not in any way correlate to any email address you use. The only truly anonymous way to connect to the internet is to use a free wireless connection either from a legitimate source such as a public library, or simply by leeching from a neighbor (but don't forget to spoof your MAC address, since if you registered your wireless NIC for warranty purposes, the manufacturer knows your real MAC address).
--
We can never have enough of nature. We need to witness our own limits transgressed, and some life pasturing freely where we never wander.
Test your firewall.

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:48:30 EDT

BlitzenZeus : It is your rDNS, which is set by your isp, and nothing is going to change that. Also your isp uses dhcp so your ip address changes will change own its own.

It is not an invasion of privacy, its a matter of a location of the node, and if it happens to fall in the same city where you live, that is the way it happens.

The only way the site your visiting could connect you to it would be to first have your e-mail address, and attach what ever information it can get, so it would need to have your e-mail address first. In reality the most spam comes from retailers, and resellers from online orders.
--
My hourly rates:
$25 per hour.
$35 per hour if you want to watch.
$45 per hour if you want to help.
$75 per hour if you tried to fix it, and failed.
$125 per hour if you called tech support, and didn't fix the issue while making things worse

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:47:20 EDT

Daniel :

said by pvsurfer :

I realize I could hide my IP by using a proxy service, but is there no 'direct' way to hide my IP?

Hiding your IP address on the Internet is much like giving a fake address when you place a pizza delivery order. Sure, you'll trick the other side, but you won't ever get a pizza.

In short, the only way to USE the Internet is to give people your IP address. Otherwise, just like the pizza delivery guy, they'll send the stuff you want (web, mail, etc) somewhere else and you'll never get it.
--
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:39:02 EDT

pvsurfer :

said by BlitzenZeus :

No, and why does it really matter? Unless your trying to do something malicious there is no reason to hide your ip address.

To me it's simply a matter of privacy violation. Besides which, I strongly suspect it triggers a lot of the spam emails I receive.

Thanks
--
"that's not a bug, that's a random feature!"

Re: Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:26:28 EDT

BlitzenZeus : No, and why does it really matter? Unless your trying to do something malicious there is no reason to hide your ip address.

Can I hide my IP (w/o using a proxy)?

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:14:34 EDT

pvsurfer : Hopefully, this is an appropriate forum for this concern (if not, please advise)...

I am behind a Westell 327W wireless router and Verizon is my ISP. I have the router's firewall configured to its 'High' setting, yet it is not hiding my IP address! Consequently, some private information (City, State, Domain, etc.) is out there for all to see.

I realize I could hide my IP by using a proxy service, but is there no 'direct' way to hide my IP?

Thanks.

--
"that's not a bug, that's a random feature!"