Anonymous internet surfing

Anonymous Internet Surfing

anonymous In this article you will learn about anonymous internet surfing. Have you you ever worried about big brother seeing where you went and what you did ? Have you ever been concerned about someone finding out which sites you have been to or what you have downloaded ? Well worry no more. There is now a way to anonymously surf the internet and the best part of it is most of the best programs are free. Yippee another great free utility discovered by computer-info-angels. Ain't I just the best guy.

Of course if you want to anonymously surf the internet at blazing speeds some of the free utilities charge a fee.

How does anonymous internet surfing work ?

The way we are identified on the internet is by our unique ip address. What anonymous surfing does is gives the final hop, in most cases the web server, an ip address which is not that of the home user.

The way that anonymous internet surfing works is by placing what is known as a proxy server between the surfer and the web page. A proxy server is a server that sends requests on the users' behalf. Although there are several ways to accomplish this end (client software, web sites, web proxy servers etc.) they all do pretty much the same thing, so why bore you with the details. The important thing to know is which ones are the best, most secure and of course least expensive.

Advantages and disadvantages to Anonymous internet surfing.

Other than the obvious advantage of no one being able to tell where your origin ip address is and therefore where you are there are several other advantages.

Several of the most annoying aspects of surfing the internet are eliminated. For example, scripts, banners, pop-ups, and perhaps evewn some worms and viruses depending on their nature. Also there is a secure tunnel setup with the servers so therefore you should theoretically be more secure.

The main disadvantage is that anonymous internet surfing can be very slow. The fact you are bouncing through various proxies as well as the security overhead causes a large amount of slowness.

The various programs used to surf the internet anonymously.

Well the first and perhaps the best known is a program called tor. Tor was created by the US Navy and therefore a lot people have suspicions on exactly how anonymous your surfing will be especially if the government is looking into you. However, the source code has been released and there have been reassurances that you are really anonymous.

One thing I would like to note about tor is that it probably has the most involved install of the 3 free programs. So if you are not too technically savvy try the other programs.

That said tor allows not only anonymous internet surfing but also anonymous email, anonymous p2p (torrent or other download of arge files) and anonymous im. Anyways here is the link for tor. On the website there is an explanation of how tor works and what tor hopes to accomplish.

The next and probably the most highly thought of is known as JAP, which stands for JonDo Anonymity and Privacy. JAP is very respected in the anonymous surfing community. Some advantages of JAP is it can be run from a memory stick and it offers faster and more secure services through a paid program. However the paid program is done on the amount downloaded concept. Anyways to get more information about JAP click here.

The final program and probably the easiest to use is a program called xerobank. Xerobank is a browser based program that is really almost like an extension of firefox that allows for anonymous internet browsing. It is great because you can place it on a USB stick and go to an internet cafe, library or other public venue and be able to anonymously and securely surf the internet. It is a tad slow but once again you can pay for an upgrade in speed. Anyways here for the link and an explanation of xerobank click here

Note: Even with anonymous software NEVER and I mean NEVER use a public computer for anything even remotely secure. There are a number of ways security could be compromised rather easily.