Monday, November 8, 2010

Protecting Your IP Address to Protect Your Privacy

If you want to protect your Internet privacy you want to be familiar with what an IP address is.  It is a series of numbers assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider every time you connect online.

There are certain questions that come up when thinking about an IP address"

Q. Can I be traced because of my IP address?

A. Your IP address reveals merely the locality and name of your Internet service provider. Your ISP itself may own records of your laptop using their system at such and such a time, however an ISP will as a rule not disclose this information without a search warrant / court order.

Q. How long does an ISP store logs of customer IP addresses?

A. No one knows, but it might be somewhere from months to a few years. This is needed to check bandwidth usage.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Surf Anonymous, the Safe Way to Browse the Internet

By: Martin Greif

Do you think your personal and sensitive information is safe on “secure” sites? Do you think anonymous proxies are only for people with something to hide? Think again. There are several reasons a normal, everyday person may need an anonymous proxy for perfectly legitimate reasons. Anonymous surfing is entirely possible and, at times, entirely necessary.

One reason to use an anonymous proxy is a simple desire for privacy. Search engines, such as Google, track every search query. Some people, even if doing nothing wrong, are uncomfortable with being perpetually watched by a third party they have never met. The major search engines not only track people's searches, but also store this information for up to eighteen months. It's easy to see how any person would be disturbed by this infringement to their privacy.

Another reason to use an anonymous proxy is to avoid targeted ads. Certain advertising companies track a person's movements throughout their internet sessions so they can use pop-ups to advertise on that person's computer screen. Other companies track the information and then sell it to the highest bidder so they can use similar methods of advertisement--or do whatever they want with the information. This can mean that anyone, criminal or honest, government or corporation, may be able to track you.

Some people use anonymous proxies because they have been unfairly banned from a website or chat room. Sometimes moderators or webmasters at a favorite site arbitrarily block someone for purely personal reasons. Although this is a violation of a person's fundamental right to move freely about the Internet, there is little one can do to get unblocked beyond appealing to the person responsible for the blocking. Using an anonymous proxy not only allows people to visit sites from which they have been blocked, it effectively keeps them from being blocked again.

Sometimes people use an anonymous proxy or anonymous surfing practices to find information about competitors or family members without being traced. Unfortunately surfers can be traced through their IP address by any website they visit. Using an anonymous proxy effectively thwarts this. Because anonymous proxies use different IP addresses, and none of them traceable to the user, people can browse while secure in the knowledge that they are completely anonymous.

People with websites also benefit from anonymous proxies because they can post positive comments about their websites in popular forums without being discovered as the website owner. This kind of word-of-mouth advertising is both the rarest and the most effective. If you aren't using this deceptive, but entirely legal, method to bring traffic to your website, you are at a distinct disadvantage because other websites out there are using this technique.

Anonymous proxies can be used for anonymous reporting in cases where people fear reprisal. Although most people believe the government is on their side, there are too many cases of corruption for this to be realistic. An anonymous proxy makes sure whistleblowers and reporters are entirely anonymous and thus, entirely safe. In other countries, anonymous servers help oppressed citizens notify the world of injustices in their community without fear or imprisonment and death.

Some people feel that using a proxy for internet surfing is unnecessary because the most current version of Internet Explorer has a privacy mode. Although this will keep people who have access to the computer from tracking these users, it will not keep the visited websites from tracking the user. Even in privacy mode, there is no privacy. The only way to achieve true privacy is to use an anonymous proxy.

Are you still convinced that surfing the web is safe and anonymous without an anonymous proxy? Even as you read this, there are people out there who can track you. If you are comfortable with that reality, you truly have no need for an anonymous proxy. If you think this violation of your basic right to privacy is disturbing, now is the time to take action. Sign up for an anonymous proxy and start anonymous surfing today!

About the Author
President and founder of Privacy Partners, LLC. Privacy Partners is a privately held company headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Founded in 2003, the company creates and markets privacy software for consumers. The company and its products have won numerous technology awards. Click here for more information about Internet Privacy or Anonymous Surfing

(ArticlesBase SC #586538)
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Surf Anonymous, the Safe Way to Browse the Internet

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Private Proxy Software Adds 10 New Servers with Static IP Addresses

Private Proxy Software Adds 10 New Servers with Static IP Addresses

This is our latest press release about Private Proxy. We added the static IP addresses for customers who need to have consistency when visiting the same sites repeatedly. This is especially useful for banking sites. When customers use randomly rotating IP addresses to access their bank information, it might appear as a hacking attempt.

Private Proxy still offers the randomly rotating IP addresses too. They are useful for surfing the web anonymously and leaving a random trail.

For more information about the new release, please read the press release.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The US Military and Proxies

Right now, the servicemen and servicewomen of the US Military are overseas fighting for your freedom. They chose to serve in the military knowing full well that someday they might be put in harm's way. These dedicated men and women put country above their own safety. Now in far away countries, they defend us on the front lines. Over the years, these front lines have changed. Yes, the danger is still there, but so are options to relieve their boredom. Enter the Internet. Just like us, they have access to the world wide web.

So what would a soldier want to access on the Internet? Believe it or not, one of the things they do is watch TV online. They can catch their favorite programs or watch hockey. Most of the major networks put their some of their newest episodes online. For others, they can access media sites that aggregate content. Another outlet for media is the online newspapers like the New York Times. Or maybe they want to read their home town newspaper online. Today most, if not all papers, have an interactive version. So between TV, sports, and newspapers, they can catch up on the current US media and news.

There are also several social networking websites out there that they can use to keep in touch with friends and family. Sure e-mail works to an extent, but if you have ever used any form of social networking, you know exactly how much simpler it is. You can type a message on your homepage, and suddenly all of your friends and family will be able to see it. Soldiers are very pressed for time, and sometimes there just isn't an opportunity to respond to every single person. This makes social networking extremely important. There is a problem however, a huge problem. Sometimes soldiers cannot get to the websites that they need. Why exactly? Well let's talk about it.

The purpose of companies streaming their television shows onto the internet is so that people will see them, and eventually decide to buy them on DVD. People outside the country however will not be able to buy these because they are simply unavailable. Companies decided that they were actually losing money because such people couldn't get a hold of their products! They didn't seem to consider all of the people IN the United States that were buying. After all, what could it hurt if a few foreigners watched an episode of The Office, or even Stargate Universe? Well you wouldn't think that it could hurt at all, but the production companies didn't quite see it that way. For this reason they started to block IP addresses outside of the United States. The same went for several social networking websites because they suffered from the same advertisement problem. This however did not stop the military personnel from viewing their favorite websites. They instead turned to proxies.

For those who don't know, a proxy is a server that one can connect to. This server will then connect you to the internet via it's own connection. What does this accomplish? It provides you with a new IP address which is based in the United States. You are not visiting websites via your own connection, but instead you are using the ISP that the proxy subscribes to. What you're dealing with there is surfing the internet using a computer across the ocean. The moral aspect is up to you, but if you get a proxy with decent encryption, the ISP you use overseas will never know the difference. This is also a great way to protect your privacy. By using a proxy you will be able to hide your identity while catching up on your favorite shows. The one thing you don't want to do in a war zone is broadcast who you are and what you are doing. With that in mind, start shopping for a good proxy today. Once you arrange a good one, you will be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy your favorite shows.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Using A WEP Key

Many people these days have a wireless Internet. It is quite a useful thing: if you have a laptop, you can travel all over your house and work and surf relaxed on your couch rather crunched up on your cramped keyboard. It is always useful too if you are entertaining guests and only have one home computer, and they have brought their laptop. This allows them to use their own system and you don’t have to let someone browse and possibly snoop all over your computer.

There are guests you want and there are guests that were uninvited. Your wireless Internet means that it can be scanned and picked up by anyone with a wireless detecting system, which comes standard on every laptop and computer. This means that anyone with an Internet connection can potentially scan and get hooked up and surf from your Internet.

This could potentially be a problem. While there are some people who are totally honest and just using your Internet signal to get on the Internet real quick and send an e-mail, there are others who are have a more malicious intent. Beware of your neighbors; your signal can only be picked up from a small radius of your router, so no one from the other side of town will be hacking into your server, but your neighbors would be easily within range.

Again, your neighbors could simply just be sending a quick e-mail, but it would asinine to think that all neighbors or people getting access to your connection are this honest. Once they are connected to your signal, they have access to your IP address. If they got themselves banned from a site that you go on, most of the time this an IP ban. Since their IP is your IP because they are using your signal, you will be effectively blocked from the site as well. Also, by getting your IP, they could gain access to your documents, browsing history, and other sensitive information. Your IP address is a portal into your virtual life, and why it is public seems to be quite a strange thing. Try using an IP changer to hide your IP and remain anonymous online. There is also the possibility that the person on your signal is an experienced hacker and could actually hijack your communications from their post, and use your computer themselves. This would be a hacker’s dream; a buffet of information they could help themselves to.

There is no way to sense if there are interlopers using your Internet connection, except that maybe if both of you are on at the same time, it might seem a bit slower than normal. Also, you are paying an ISP a monthly fee for the services and Internet that they provide, and this other person is completely mooching off of you! This could make anyone indignant. There are ways to stop these people from getting into your Internet and possibly compromising your anonymity and anonymous browsing experience online.

Use a WEP key. When these hackers look around for Internet connections to use, they look for the “security strength: unsecured”. This means that the person’s Internet has no frills and will pose no risk if they connect to it. These are the guys they go after. They avoid any Internet signal that would say “WEP protected” or anything along those lines. These Internet connections are protected with a long password, often over 20 digits, to get in. When they try to connect, they will be prompted to put in the unique password, and will have no idea what it is, and will be denied access. Hacker thwarted! If they somehow do get your password, these WEP keys can be set up to send you alerts when someone new has connected, and if you get one, search the vicinity of your house or your neighbors to find the interloper.

Don’t go unprotected in this rapidly evolving world of technology. Hackers and online criminals prey on those who are unprotected and unsecured. Using a WEP key is a simple way to keep people off of your Internet connection and keep your documents and other Internet browsing safe and secure.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Business Advice

Action Tips is a site for any business person or entrepreneur doing business today. In such a rough economy like the one we are faced with today, these tips are needed to get by, as there are no signs that it will get better. This means that the old concept of Darwinism will be begin to resurface; only the strongest survive. Not the strongest in muscle, but the strongest in brains; who can sell their product to a wider demographic of customers and make the most money?

The site hosts many lessons and tutorials on how to do the most important thing a human can do in their lifetime; make money. To do this, they offer courses and tutorials that you can purchase to bolster your money smarts, and learn how to do more with what currency you already possess. These articles and guides are all ergonomically laid out and easy-to-navigate. Right off of the home page, you can see a list of all the most recent or greatest new articles, and in a thumbnail fashion where you get a little sample and if you like it you can click to see more, the articles that interest you may be selected.

When you click on an article that interests you, you will be brought to another site that hosts the information about the product themselves. This is a god-send for those who always want more information because the site that sells the product will always have more and always be willing to tell you more about it. Once you navigate to the new site, you can read in meticulous detail everything the product does, and often explore incredible deals! I saw one where it was a set of five books at five dollars each, but if purchased all together, it was only fifteen dollars in total, saving me ten dollars! The bottom line is, these money making books are an investment; they will pay for themselves and more in the long run if their ideas are applied.

There are always skeptics about these books, lectures, and other medium to communicate these money saving options through. They don’t think the books or the lectures will really help them at all, so they avoid these things like the plague. What they don’t realize though is that this site offers a fifty-six day minimum day money back guarantee. That is (AT MINIMUM!) fifty-six days to try out your product, listen to it, read it, and enjoy it. If you are unsatisfied whatsoever, the product can be returned for all of your cash back the same day you deliver the product back. Fifty-six days is a long time, and this way you don’t have to rush yourself into using your purchase immediately, as you would if it was only a weeklong guarantee.

When you first log on, you might be shocked or intimidated by the monolith of content the site offers. Don’t fear though! This only helps you. Just think about it, this site is coming to you with almost five years of content, experience, and trial to bring you the best products possible. Think about this: since the products are hand-picked by the site, after five years, this website knows what will work and what won’t. They won’t steer you wrong; they are here for you. You can peruse the first page or check the recent posts section to get an idea what has happened recently on the site. Or, you can view everything in bulk by clicking on the archives section. This will allow you to chronologically view every article from that month in the specific order. The categories section will allow you to narrow down your search to a specific topic that you are interested in. This is very useful when you are looking for a lot of information about one specific thing. For example, if you only want to find information about securing and keeping a successful job, the “employment” category would be where you would find your information. There is also the search bar, which can do a keyword search of the entire site and bring up all information about the words you typed in.

This site really is dedicated to you. They even have a whole section at the top of their page devoted to “helpful links” that point you in the right direction and are always pertinent to the business world. Video Tips is another useful section for those who do not have the time to read; you can simply watch and absorb the same information that you would read. If you are still skeptical after all of the offers, you can sign up and get one free course. This will allow you to test out the site and see if it is what you need, and give you a little sampling of the knowledge you could possess.

To get ahead of the pack, look no further than Action Tips. Following their advice through their money back guarantees and low prices will enable you to best your competition and make more money than you ever thought.