How to Hide My IP Address

As you browse on the internet, you have a public IP address. This Internet Protocol address is shared with all the apps you use, websites you visit or services you use. Meanwhile, you can decide not to share the address by using a VPN proxy server. Instead of the website, service and apps you use to see your IP address, they will see that of the VPN proxy server. That’s what it simply means to hide your IP or prevent others from knowing it.

There are many reasons why you many need to hide your IP address. The fact is that your public IP address pass a lot of information about you including where you are, that is, location; the activity you are carrying out, your identity etc. This means you don’t enjoy the digital freedom that you deserve. This is the case because other parties who are the owners of the apps and services you are assessing will have the opportunity to control your experience online.

What has been stated above necessitates hiding your IP address. In a nutshell, the reasons can be summarized as follows; to prevent web tracking, bypassing content filters, to avoid a digital footprint, to avoid blacklisting or bans, to hide geographical location and above all, to be digitally free.

Hiding Your IP Address: What Are The Ways?

Basically, we will discuss four ways by which you can hide your IP address in this section. These include the use of VPN, Proxy servers, and Tor Browsers.

• Use of VPN

This is by far the most popular way of hiding your IP address. Apart from that, it is also the most reliable and easiest way. Once you set up your VPN, it assigns you a virtual IP address. Any website that you visit or access will not see your real IP address. They will see the virtual one. Most of the VPN providers have several global server locations. This means that you can get a virtual IP address for anyplace in the world. One of the greatest advantage you will enjoy if you hide your IP address using VPN is the fast connection speed. You will not suffer any slow connection at all.

• Use of Proxy Servers

This is also another great way of hiding your address. It is particularly used to gain access to geoblocked content. As a quick example, if you want to stream a video that is only available in Canada and you are from United Kingdom, you can gain access through a proxy. As you visit the website, your computer will make a request to view the video. Your proxy server will intercept this request and send a Canadian IP address to the website. With that, you can start streaming the video live. One disadvantage of this method is that you may encounter low connection speed.

• Use of Tor Browser

If you wish to stay online permanently as an anonymous, this is the best option for you. It is a free browser that is operating based on a huge network of volunteer servers. As you use Tor browser, your traffic goes through a lot of servers before it gets to its final destination. By this time, the website has no track of the original IP address.