How to Access the Internet Anonymously

If you access the Internet anonymously, you can keep your physical location and other information off of the Internet. The following methods will help you protect your privacy online and are ranked in order from easiest to hardest, as well as least effective to most effective.

Things You'll Need

• Internet access
• computer

Instructions

1. Change your IP address. This is a really easy method. Unplug your modem, wait for about a half an hour and then plug the modem back in. This will generate a new IP address which is not necessarily linked to your original address.

2. Use someone else's computer. While a simple solution, this still broadcasts your friend's IP address to the Internet at large, plus you have to ask your friend to use the machine.

3. Use a simple proxy server. Proxy servers mask your IP address with their own. This sort of camouflage is only as good as the server's firewall. Determined hackers can slip around a proxy server and find you.

4. Obtain the services of a multi-layered proxy server. This will cost more than a simple proxy server, but is more effective. Your computer's transmission is routed through an encrypted network of computers before hitting the server and then on to the Internet.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are very serious about your online privacy, just changing the IP address via unplugging or resetting the modem is not going to cut it. All this does is change the instance of the IP, but the new IP will still contain information about your general location and the Web hosting or connection service that you are using.

• Encrypted proxy servers are probably the best way to access the Internet anonymously without spending an inordinate amount of money or breaking any laws, but even they can be broken.

• Your IP address can tell strangers what Web hosting service you are using and other information that can be used to get your personal information such as your address or telephone number.