Anonymous Web Surfing [Warning]

Is Being Anonymous Worth The Loss Of Your Access?

Question: Why do you need to surf the web secretly?

I can see a few reasons and most are not honorable.

You can hide you IP address from places you visit but you can not hide from your ISP regardless of what programs like "Hide My IP Address" or web sites that say you can use their proxy server to surf in secret.

There is a fly in the ointment Dr. Watson. Ah! Yes, a very big fly in fact. They are called Server Logs.

When you connect to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) the connection to the ISP is logged by time and your IP, along with that the destination IP/Name/Domain is also logged. When the connection is broken the log entry is closed. Period. End of Story.

Back when ex-VP A. Gore first invented the internet there was no need to worry about hackers/thieves/low life persons gaining access to your computer or being anonymous because most of the computers belonged to either an University, College, or the US DOD.

When the Internet became a commercial enterprise (much to the horror of the 'Open NET' type groups) is when the criminal element showed up.

Note: In the USA the open net types and the politicians are trying to get the 'Net Neutrality' law passed. What this means to you and me is lower access and higher cost. You already pay four or more 'taxes' (read your phone bill) but they want more of your money and you will receive less in return. That is if you don't call your Gov rep and let them know that increase in taxes and lower access is not acceptable... (Don't think that this will effect the criminal types, it won't they are always five steps ahead of the curve).

Back then hiding (being anonymous)  your IP address was called 'Spoofing' that is your IP would be changed to another IP until the session (connection from your computer to another computer on the WWW [Internet] ) then when you connected to another computer it would see a different IP.

The draw back with spoofing is that if the connection is broken while you were downloading a file (especially if you paid for that file) you would lose you file and maybe your money you paid for it.

If you use one of these programs and your ISP has set the 'Spoofing' rule in their TOS (Terms Of Service) you may lose your access and most ISP's will black list your name and physical address. This is due to the hacker/thief/low life using the spoofing while doing their low life hacking. Once a name and address are identified as a hacker then getting access is severely restricted as it should be.

Troubleshoot, repair, maintain, upgrade & secure...     With this!

Back in the late 20th Century a very large company came under investigation because a group of hackers/thieves/low life were using their routers to do their dirty work. This company almost lost their license to operate in the USA, they did lose it in Canada. The investigation was so wide spread that the company had to sell of a lot of the Telecom installations in the Northern USA (do you know who I mean? No names please). Once the dust settled we were very lucky to still have the freedom of the internet we enjoy today.

This is when it came to light that you could use an alternate IP address to connect from one computer to another, however do to the previous paragraph all the ISP's have since put in their TOS that if you spoof an IP you lose your access and go on a black list that is circulated through all the major ISP's in the USA and Canada as far as I know.

If someone submits a complaint about your activities then criminal charges can be brought against you, this is a little harder to do because the companies that are providers (ISP) guard the logs of their customers activity very closely. It takes a search warrant to attain the logs and there has to be a criminal complaint for the warrant.

Note: An ISP will monitor their logs very closely and when a lot of strange (not in the DHCP scope) IP's start showing up they will investigate.

ISP's will take any complaint very seriously because they do not want to be a part of a criminal investigation.

I have hunted down spammers, hackers, and thieves over the last six or so years and every time I presented proof of an activity the hacker/thief/spammer has lost their access through that ISP (also known as a hosting company).

So if you think you can use one of these programs or a 'Anonymous Proxy' web site and hide your tracks think again.

End of my warning ...

Note: Do not confuse the "Hide My IP Address (supposedly anonymous)" with blocking of a wan request with your router, when you block wan request you are stopping the router from replying to unsolicited ping requests effectively hiding your router. This is not the same as changing the IP address your are coming from.

Update 02-08-20

If you read the tabloids and a few other "news" type web sites occasionally you will see where a high profile husband or wife is getting a devoice, some of them are quite humorous because the person or persons involved did not understand the technology they were using. One I remember because I really didn't like the person involved did this:

The person contacted their accomplice [sic] via twitter, the failure was this: The person used their "smartphone" to connect to a anonymous web site to connect to a anonymous twitter account. The person also failed to keep the password to the "smartphone" secret. When the spouse found out about the accomplice [sic] the spouse went through the phone to the twitter account, copied all the messages and took them to a lawyer. (Doing this from memory, read it a year or so ago...)

The failure was this:

1 Not securing the phone, well at least not giving the spouse access...

2. The anonymous site was a link, when opened it also opened the twitter account that the person had set the "remember me" with password. (Automation is great isn't it? Unless it bites you...)

And then the person lost twice: spouse/home/bank account with all the $$$$$$$$ and the accomplice [sic].

How did the spouse's lawyer get the logs? With the messages, you see even though the person's activities were not criminal the lawyer could and did use the devoice for the search warrant...

BTW: Technology is great, no? Know how to use it or it will bite you.