Many of the times you would need to hide your IP Address for several reasons that include navigating through the website while staying anonymous, get full access to the movie streaming or to obtain the maximum benefit of public Wi-Fi. No matter what the reason is but what’s common in all those reasons is you want to stay anonymous and not reveal much about yourself. You might be wondering what an IP address is and how does it work or what can it reveal about me? Or should I hide my IP address and what difference it makes or even how I can hide my IP address free online? Then you are at the right. All of these questions will be answered in this article. Starting from the beginning what is an IP address to different ways you can use to hide your IP address.
What is an IP Address?
Understanding an IP address and its working is a bit technical, but I have the easiest version for you today. Let’s take it this way, your house has an address and when you send a letter or mail to someone you put a return address on it, so when they have to contact you back they have an address which they can send the mail to. Similarly, your computer has an address. When you browse something on the internet, the information you asked has to reach you. An IP address is a thing that is used to locate you and to provide you the desired information.
Who set up an IP address and what is your IP address are some questions usually asked. Firstly you can check your IP address online using different online sites. But there is one thing you should know; your IP address doesn’t always remain the same. You do not access the internet directly. You have to use a router that connects you to the internet. It’s the job of that router to allow you an IP address and to bring all the messages to the right place. The moment you change your router, your IP address changes. If you are using your phone at home, you have a different IP address. When you go to the office and use your phone their on the office router, your IP address changes. And then you go to the coffee shop to grab a coffee and uses their router to access the internet, and you have a different address again. So IP address is a temporary address allotted to your device to locate it and bring all the information to your device.
How to Hide your IP Address?
Firstly you would think about why you need to hide your IP address. Isn’t it a thing which is needed to access the internet then why do you need to hide it? The answer is it is your passport to the internet, but it also has a negative side. An IP address can locate you as well as it can be used to get all the information about your activity over the internet. So if you want to stay untraceable yourself or want to stay safe from spies, then you might consider hiding IP address. Now that you know what an IP address is, how does it work and how it can hurt you and it’s time to answer the important question that is how to hide IP address? There are certain ways you can use to hide your IP address. Some of the ways are discussed below:
1. Use VPN to Hide IP
Using a VPN service is the best way so far. You have to go and sign up with any of the VPN service providers, and when you access the internet, it shows the word a different IP address. These are the IP addresses that you loan from the VPN service. Using a VPN has many advantages over other ways as it gives you higher speed, a safe and secure connection, access to blocked sites and you can choose the city and country yourself. Here are the best VPN services that you should have a free try.
NordVPN
NordVPN is one of the best VPN service providers. It can keep you safe over the internet no matter where you are using the internet. It offers more than 5000 IP addresses for you to choose from. NordVPN is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and Blackberry. You can also install the extension of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and IE browser. You can avail of the services of NordVPN service provider at $2.99/month, and they also provide 30-day money-back guarantee.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is a fast and secure VPN service provider that offers 24/7 support and has apps for all the devices, such as computer, Android phone, iPhone, router, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. It is a widely trusted VPN service and gives 30 days of a money-back guarantee. You can check out the details and get ExpressVPN here.
CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost VPN is another VPN service which is safe, secure and reliable. It is also considered as one of the best services being the fastest browsing experience you can have. The service is easy to use and can be availed at just $2.75/month with 45 days money-back guarantee and what’s more. They have a 24/7 support service.
Ivacy VPN
Ivacy VPN is an award-winning VPN service provider. It is the winner of BestVPN.com 2019 held at Las Vegas. It won the awards of best speed, best value and best overall. The VPN service is no doubt a very good one which you can get here. They also give a 30-day money-back guarantee.
PureVPN
PureVPN is yet another VPN service provider offering the best services and easy to install apps. It can work on Windows as well as Mac, and it requires no manual set up. You can access the details and services of PureVPN to get more details.
2. Use a Proxy to Hide IP
A proxy is a gateway between you and the website you are surfing. When you make a request, that request goes through the proxy to the website server, and the information from the website comes back to you passing through the proxy. In this way, your IP address stays hidden from the outer world and your device stays safe and secure.
3. Use TOR to Hide IP
TOR is a browser like all other browsers which are Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Safari. TOR is used all over the world. When you go online from TOR, it hides your IP address and allows you to browse around freely and anonymously. TOR is a free software which you can download and start using. It layers your data for security and protection. It is an easy way, but it is quite slow as compared to the VPN.
4. Use Public Wi-Fi
Using a Public Wi-Fi is by far the easiest way to hide your IP address. If you remember the working of an IP address, you would remember that your IP address changes when you access the internet from a different place. When you access the internet from a coffee shop or a restaurant or any hotel, you have a different IP address. In this way, you can surf from a different IP address from the usual one you use at your home and can access different sites staying anonymous. Although this way of hiding the IP address has its risks. Like if you are not using a VPN, it is likely that your internet activity is being spied. Public Wi-Fi is most prone to being spied upon so either you should use a VPN to secure yourself against the bad guys or stay cautious and don’t enter your passwords especially never do any banking activity while using a public Wi-Fi. So you should learn how to stay safe on Public Wi-Fi.
5. Use Mobile Network
Using a mobile network is yet another way to hide your IP address. It works but is not a long-term solution. Using your mobile phone data is an entirely different system and hence has a different IP address you can use to browse over the internet. It can allow you to surf from a different IP address out of the one you usually use at your home and hence it can provide a temporary solution for hiding the IP address.
Conclusion
An IP address is what you need to have while surfing on the internet and without an IP address, it’s impossible. The world ran out of IP addresses a little time back, but luckily humans had a different type of IP addresses, and that’s what happened. Today we have two different types of IP addresses named IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6 is a format which uses eight sets of 4 hexadecimal digits which provides almost unlimited possibilities. The number of possibilities in IPv6 type is so huge that we do expect that we would never run out of IP addresses again. Besides this little interesting information, now you know what an IP address is and what it is used for. Plus you know about its bad side and the ways you can hide your IP address. The fact is VPN is no doubt the best way to hide an IP address. All the rest have their pros and cons.
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