Understanding IP Address and Anonymous Web Surfing - Part 3

“How it works”

“This is a more technical explanation for those of you that are so inclined. If you do not understand everything on this page, relax the
system is extremely user friendly and you need not understand all the details to remain anonymous on the internet in all of your
activities.”

“What we have is a VPN, Virtual Private Network and a SOCKS 5 Proxy service. Upon joining the service you will be given a user name and
password to our VPN and proxy services. Once connected your entire internet traffic will flow through our secure servers making you
anonymous. We never pass on your true IP address. We do not keep logs period.”

“In the past some of you may have used anonymous proxy servers. As time goes on things become abused more and more on the internet. In
recent years there has been a rash of “phony” anonymous proxies that are set up by malicious people who use the proxy to capture user
names, passwords, credit card info, etc which they use for personal gain at your expense. Additionally who is to say they are not keeping
log files and what might they do or not do with these log files. With our service you run no such risks.”

“When our service is turned on all internet traffic goes through us, you do not have to remember to route everything through a proxy.”

“You can use the service with a firewall. “

“If you need to connect to a service that will only let you in based on your true static IP address then you can turn off our service and
enter into that network using your registered IP address.”

“You can use the service from multiple computers but only one computer can be used by an account at one time, in other words we do not allow
multiple log ins simultaneously.” http://www.findnot.com/howitworks.html?

The cost for this service is $19.95 per month, $49.95 for 6 months or $89.95 for 1 year.

***

As I mentioned, there are also shareware programs that you install on your computer that perform a similar function to the services listed
above. One such program is called Anonymity 4 Proxy (A4Proxy). You can find it here:
http://www.inetprivacy.com/a4proxy/

The software is $35 to purchase (one time fee which includes free updates for life).

“Anonymity 4 Proxy (A4Proxy) is a personal anonymous proxy server and anonymizing software. Once you install on your own computer, it will
allow you to surf the Web with privacy. This local proxy server includes a database with hundreds of anonymous public proxy servers
located all over the world. The program is essential for those who value their privacy and who want to surf the web anonymously. With
A4Proxy, you can scan each server, check its response time, confirm its anonymity, and test its speed in connection with the website or
ftp-server that interests you (HTTP, HTTPS (Secure HTTP) and FTP are supported). You can choose the best candidate as your default proxy,
or select the option to use a different proxy for each request. Advanced features allow you to actively hide yourself while surfing:
A4Proxy can generate a fake IP address for each request, selectively modify HTTP variables, block cookies, and more. The program also helps
to avoid network congestions and can be used by webmasters and network administrators to test their servers.”

***

If you would like to just access a few pages over a proxy, and do so infrequently, you can try a (free) service called “Proxify”. It is
located here:
http://proxify.com/

Type in a web address, and it will load it for you anonymously.

“Proxify is a web-based anonymous proxy service which allows anyone to surf the Web privately and securely. Unlike other proxies, there is no
software to install or complicated instructions to follow. Just enter a URL (website address) in the form above. Through Proxify, you can
use websites but they cannot uniquely identify or track you. Proxify hides your IP address and our encrypted connection prevents monitoring
of your network traffic. Once using Proxify, you can surf normally and forget that it is there, protecting you.”

***

If you simply want to have a proxy connection to the web, with no cost to you, then free proxy lists are your friend.

You can find these lists all over, but, a few to get your started are at:
http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html
http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/
http://www.publicproxyservers.com/page1.html
http://www.freeproxy.ru/download/lists/goodproxy.txt
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/links.htm

Also, I found another site that has a large list of software programs that will do a variety of tasks surrounding proxies. The website is
called, “Free Proxy Servers” and is located here:
http://www.freeproxy.ru/

It also has a tutorial on configuring your web browser to work with the free proxies. The tutorial can be found here:
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/howuse.htm

The site also has a very good FAQ that explains, in detail, how proxies work:
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/faq/index.htm

You should know however, that free proxy servers can have some serious issues as far as security goes. There is no guarantee that a free
proxy will not keep detailed logs and records of every site you visited, and each and every item you submitted to the remote site
(including credit card information, usernames, passwords, etc). There is a detailed page that explains the risks here:
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/faq/anti-proxy.htm