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In today s world of globalization and wide spread of computers, Internet has becomeincreasingly popular way for communication, for expressing yourself, for sharingyour mind with everybody. Popular types of resources include web blogs, instantmessaging, chats, forums and many others. Just a few clicks and everybody in theworld knows about your point of view on politics, culture, science, relationships,whatever, since quickly evolving technologies bring Internet to millions of peoplearound the world.
But no good comes without bad. The worst thing to consider about many moderntechnologies such as Internet is a complete lack of privacy. Sitting at the front ofyour computer screen and surfing the net you are being watched constantly, by manypeople and organizations, interested or not. How is it possible? Let s see.
Internet is based on IP - Internet Protocol - special network protocol designed atthe beginning of 70s for U.S. defense purposes, but has become widely used solutiontoday (take a look at Internet History for more information). Basically, mosttoday s computers are connected by IP, and its extension, TCP/IP. We will not diveinto details of TCP/IP here, but rather give a short explanation and point to majorprivacy concerns. Main idea of IP protocol is a set of independent nodes (computers)connected somehow between themselves, each node has unique identifier assigned toit, and special rules exists which help computers exchange data with each otherthrough intermediate computers, called "IP routers". The unique identifier is calledIP address, and every networked computer must have it in order communicate toothers. To view your current IP address, run "ipconfig" from command line underWindows, or open web site like www.netconceal.com or www.showmyip.com.
Ok, but what s wrong with my IP address? Like a regular address (e.g. your postaladdress), IP address identifies your location, no matter how you are connected tothe Internet. For example, DSL connection from your home is managed by ISP(remember, you have to sign agreement with ISP, and your actual and billingaddresses are there). Wireless connections, such as GPRS or WiFi are being trackedas well (GPRS stations are able to determine your position with a mile precision,WiFi are even more location-bound), and service providers always register andidentify you as a subscriber. Try web sites like www.ip2location.com to see this inpractice (the information is not exactly precise in all cases, but remember,technology improves daily!).
Every time you surf the Internet, your IP address is publicly visible to everyone ontarget network resources, therefore, your actual location and even name and age canbe tracked as well. Of course, this costs something (they need to contact web siteowner or hosting provider, and ISP or WiFi access point owner), but interestedparties can implement this fairly easy. This is very serious point to consider. Forexample, you submit blog article, and express your opinion about politics, criticizesomething or make really controversial statements. That s was just an opinion,relax, everybody. But someone, being, for example, a religious fanatic or simplyparanoid, can find you and shoot you right at your home. What s the hell, why?That s true, simply because he knows EVERYTHING about you, your IP address, and thusyour name and physical location, since all web sites keep logs of IP addressesaccessing them (once you submit your post, web site records a number of entries inits log file, putting together your post and your IP address).
Just for demonstration, 4 simple steps to know everything about specific person:
Retrieve web site logs (not a problem for site owners, they already have them). Howcan these logs be retrieved by anyone? Simply by contacting web site owner, and manyof them will give theirs logs away with easiness, don t worry. Just send e-mailusing published contact information (click link like "Contact Us"), write wordslike: "Some guy who is using your site is suspected in credit card fraud, he hasstolen my money already!", or "The person with nickname  blackjack from your siteis promoting child porn, we need your web site logs for investigation, thank you."and 99% - you ll receive desired logs. Analyze logs. For example, get timestamp of specific blog post and search forrecords matching this timestamp, then compare URLs of web site request and extractIP address from log entries. Obtain IP address owner (the Internet Service Provider, ISP). Usewww.ip2location.com, it displays ISP. For well-known ISPs like Verizon - you realmost done. Otherwise try looking it up in Google and find their web site. Half anhour and you ll surely find it. Contact ISP, supply IP address, and say something like you did in step (1), andthey ll easily reveal user of their IP address, because they don t want problemswith that user. That s it.
Is there any way to protect you against this? Relax, really good solution exist andthe rest of this article will point you right there.
Basic idea of all privacy solutions is faking of your real IP address. How is itaccomplished? Solution is based on intermediary computers, which are placed betweenyou (the person who wishes to hide himself from everyone) and target web sites (andother network resources - such as instant messaging, file sharing etc). Thosecomputers are called  Proxy Servers . How does Proxy Server work? Very simple: it sjust like a very simple tunnel between you and web site, all data sent by you to website or received by you from web site are passed through proxy server as is, usingspecial SOCKS protocol (don t mess with foot socks, it s just a coincidence :).What s the difference? Exactly, target web site sees Proxy Server IP address, butnot your real IP. And web site logs keep Proxy Server IP but not your real one aswell. Sound great, but how to use this?
Anonymous Proxy Server lists are published throughout the web on special web sites,for example www.proxyblind.org. Actually, proxy server list looks like a simplesequence of IP address : port number pairs, for example: 123.43.12.96 : 1080 98.15.13.17 : 1080 150.19.87.31 : 1080
Choosing proper Proxy Server from such lists can be a tedious task, some of them maybe valid, and some are not. You just test them one by one, select valid ones andsave them for further usage. This work must be repeated each time you want to useproxy, since Proxy Servers get closed very often. After choosing proper ProxyServer, you have to connect your application (web browser, instant messenger,whatever) to it and work. Try configuring your application for use with proxyserver. For example, MSN, Yahoo! and ICQ support SOCKS proxies, but some programs donot. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers also support this, but youmust select another kind of Proxy Server - HTTP proxy (in opposite to SOCKS proxy).
Special software was developed to address the issues listed above - NetConcealAnonymity Shield, it keeps you free from manual proxy server checking, SOCKSconfiguration and supports ALL applications. Actually, a few clicks to hide IPaddress and become anonymous.
Download NetConceal Anonymity Shield now and try it. Once the installation is done,NetConceal Anonymity Shield is started automatically, now click the  Launch WebBrowser or  Launch Other... buttons. Proxy selection is done within a minute, thenapplication is started and you can use the Internet fully anonymous, since your realIP is invisible to everyone. Too good to be true? Please try it before criticizing.
To learn more about NetConceal Anonymity Shield software, check out thewww.netconceal.com web site and contact us if you need more help, we are really gladto help you with evaluation and ongoing usage.
