Although in the article on information security bases we wrote that online anonymity is something impossible in an absolute sense, it is not said that we cannot disguise ourselves in order to hide our identity when we use a computer on the internet and make it very also complicated for a government agency such as the CIA and also for the best hackers to trace our real origin. There are several ways to disguise yourself online and all of them plan to falsify the IP, i.e. the identification address of a device connected to the network that uses the Internet protocol.
Online anonymity is not something you only need to do criminal activities or to behave badly, but it is a growing need today especially after finding out that the CIA, NSA and practically every government or investigative agency in the world try to monitor online communications. all people regardless of who we are and what we do.
It is important to know that using fake IP addresses in order not to be tracked online is absolutely not illegal, it is simple to do and it is free, with no need to spend money (although, as we will see, with a small expense you get better results and stable).
READ ALSO: Who can see our IP address and what can it do "> hide the IP address behind another existing IP.
Our computer or smartphone is then viewed on the internet with the IP address of another host located on the other side of the world.
To trace the real origin of the computer you can, in theory, contact the host behind which the IP is hiding and search for our real IP, which is absolutely difficult depending on the type of technology you are going to use.
1) The best method for disguising yourself online and the most advantageous from the performance point of view is the use of a VPN .
VPN stands for the virtual private network and is a parallel and encrypted connection through which traffic is routed.
Basically, our IP is camouflaged with that of the VPN manager and you browse the internet as if you were on a computer of this.
Encryption prevents anyone from knowing what sites we visit and what we do, including the connection provider and also the company that manages the VPN.
If you are trying to stay online safely, securely and in a way that is not traceable, VPN is the simplest solution and there are two types of VPN services that you can use.
free VPNs are limited in their use, they can be slower and can collect data on our internet connection.
The most convenient free VPN to use is definitely the Opera VPN integrated in the browser.
Premium paid VPN services are safe, reliable and fast with no limitations.
By paying a subscription of 10 Euros per month or even less, you get the possibility to surf from PC or smartphone always in a completely anonymous and disguised way, without the possibility of leaving traces online.
The only way to trace us would be to ask the VPN manager to identify us, which never happens without very serious crimes.
In any case, VPN services do not store our online activities and, with encryption, they make sure that no one, not even the managers themselves, can know which sites we visit or what we do.
2) TOR
TOR is the most powerful way to be anonymous on the internet.
While with the VPN the connection is covered by a server of the service manager, in TOR each user can act as a connection node.
In practice, every TOR user connects to the internet by disguising himself as another user, making it practically impossible to trace their real identity.
As written in another article, only with TOR are secrecy and privacy guaranteed.
To access TOR, just surf the internet with the TOR browser.
The shortcoming of TOR is that the browsing speed can slow down a lot.
3) Use of a web proxy
A web proxy works in such a way as to place itself in the middle of the connection between our PC and a website.
The site will think that the visit comes from the proxy server and will not know anything about our computer.
All web traffic is diverted through the proxy server so the IP address detected by the websites is the IP address of the proxy server.
Compared to VPNs, however, the proxy solution is much more insecure.
Meanwhile, web proxies are typically unencrypted.
This means that even if the IP is falsified by the proxy, the traffic can still be snorted by the internet connection provider or the government.
Also, some websites can still see our real IP address if plugins like Flash Player are used.
In addition, the proxy must be set at the level of each application or web browser and does not apply to all connections on the computer as a VPN program does.
We saw how to set up a proxy on Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox and we talked in another article about some proxies to surf anonymously on the internet.
4) Use public Wi-Fi
Perhaps the best way to falsify the IP is to browse through the public Wifi network of a bar around, staying away from our home, especially if you use the free network in a place frequented as an MC Donalds.
Certainly, however, public wifi networks can be controlled by their managers who can intercept and store everything we do online, therefore, even in this case, a VPN program would be needed to cover the traffic.
In this regard, see here how to surf safely on public wifi network, free or unsecured
Today hiding online, disguising, falsifying or protecting the IP, is no longer a thing for hackers or cyber criminals, but really something that everyone could want to do for privacy, to be sure that nobody can intercept our messages and to be sure that nobody knows what sites we like or what files we download from the internet.
