Anonymous Surfing is all about keeping your online surfing private. Today, lots of tools exist that report where you go online - the days of anonymous web surfing on unmodified computers are gone. The news is full of peoples computers being confiscated and their browsing habits uncovered and submitted as evidence.
Besides browsing, other internet activities such as instant messaging and file swapping are also being traced, stored and presented as proof in various cases. It pays to understand what solutions are out there and how they can protect your privacy.
Here are some tips to keep your web activities private.
Anonymous Surfing Tip 1: consider a anonymous proxy. If you are at the office, any web page that you go to will be logged. If you have the ability to change your computer settings, change your settings from the office connection to a anonymous proxy. Understand that many of the public servers on the anonymous proxy lists are just that - public, and subject to overloading, outages, and other gotchas that may sour your anonymous surfing experience. A few anonymous proxy solutions offer private servers that should prove to be a more reliable solution. An example is Bypass (http://bypass.cc) which offers free and subscription access to the managed anonymous proxy solution. Also look for proxies that support services other than web surfing - a web proxy server does not provide anonymous services for file sharing, since files are shared using another method - FTP for example. Make sure that whatever solution you choose that you understand what is being protected and what is not - a false sense of security is worse than no security at all.
Anonymous Surfing Tip 2: At the office, many people may not have the ability to change their computer to an anonymous proxy - many local network administrators intentionally lock down the computer so users cannot install or modify the configuration. Or, perhaps you don't want to make the change and deal with the administrator questioning why you made the change in the first place.As a workaround, use some of the free anonymous surfing solutions to support your anonymous browsing needs. Many require nothing more that a standard browser to work - others may need to install a helper application. A good solution is PurePrivacy - but it doesn't always work with all browsers. Kaxy is more browser agnostic - but you need to subscribe to it to surf during peak hours (whenever that is).
Anonymous Surfing Tip 3: Ok - so maybe you can make changes to your computer but don't want to go the anonymous proxy route. Free anonymous surfing solutions would work, but you want a more permanent solution - perhaps a solution with more features. In the past, many of these "all in one" anonymous browser product were bulky and added significant overhead (processing power and delay) to the online experience. Many of the delays were attributed to the random nature of public proxy servers and their unreliability. Of late, products like Anonymizer, Steganos Anonym Pro and Tenebril's GhostSurf utilize a controlled network of managed proxies with anonymous browser plugins with on/off switches to make a complete anonymous web surfing solution. But many don't stop there - they also incorporate popup blockers, ad removers, and secure password vaults. Of course, there will always be a delay associated with using these products since they perform additional steps whenever you go to the internet. What has changed is the way that the companies attempt to minimize the delay - and with the more recent products it is much less noticeable - and a small price to pay for privacy. Many companies provide trial versions that allow you to experience the product first hand before buying - a wise move.
The latest best of breed application can be found at Tenebril - their GhostSurf offering is a step above the other products and doesn't require a monthly / annual subscription to function. And they offer a trial version as well. Of couse, you can't go wrong with the industry leader Anonymizer Anonymizer has several offerings to meet your anonymous browing needs. Their Total Privacy Suite combines Anonymous Surfing, Anti-Spyware and digital shredding capability right into the Firefox Browser
Total Net Shield
is a comprehensive solution that adds secure email, chat, instant messaging and newsgroup options. And Anonymizer 2005
provides anonymous surfing protection for Internet Explorer users running Microsoft Windows. Whatever your choice is - take a close look at the offerings, and understand what protection they provide!
Anonymous Surfing Tip 4: Anonymous Surfing is only one part of the internet equation - what about anonymous Email? There are many tools out there to isolate where emails originate from, and most company mail servers subscribe to spam filtering services that will automatically determine where the email originated from and block or quarantine most questionable emails. Companies are locked in a battle against spam, and the spammers use anonymous email server techniques to keep the authorities from finding them. While you may not be interested in becoming a spam czar, you may want another email address that is different from your personal email account to keep things separated. Using a free anonymous email account helps somewhat, but remember that when you sign up they will log your IP address and whatever personal information (like your personal email account?) that can link the account back to you.
More important these days is keeping your personal email conversations off the corporate email channel. Most companies consider email company property so look out if you're sending personal emails - companies can (and will) read your email if they deem it necessary. Also be wary of instant messaging notes - companies also have the right to log and review chat sessions - even if the account is a personal one. Think of it this way, never write anything that you would not be comfortable seeing on the front page of a newspaper with you name next to it. If you must be in contact with outside parties during work, use your private email account or a free anonymous email account from a web browser and remember to use an anonymous web surfing service! Many instant messaging programs have secure messaging capabilities - take time to understand these features and use them to your benefit.
Anonymous Surfing Tip 5: What if you want to access your private email account from the office and send email anonymously? Well, remember that your private email account is not anonymous email - your ISP or hosting company will be able to associate your account activity with you. And you most likely will not be able to send emails. Why? Because most companies & ISP's block anonymous email sending to combat spam. If you have your own mail server you can add an additional port for the SMTP server to listen to, but make sure that it is secure and correctly configured. Either way, do not use the companies SMTP server - if you do, most likely your email will be logged and subject to review. In any case, you are most likely interested in making sure that your mail is delivered to the appropriate recipient and isn't subject to unauthorized snooping along the way - find a path to your own server, and leave the corporate mail server alone.
Anonymous Surfing Tip 6: If you really want to support anonymous email access from anywhere, some tech is needed. Anonymous IP services can help out - they can provide an anonymous IP address wherever you are on the internet. Anonymous IP services can also redirect port traffic - like email servers - supporting your anonymous email needs. Like anonymous proxy services, to use an Anonymous IP service may require some changes to your local computer.
Anonymous Surfing Tip 7: What if you want the whole bag of tricks - anonymous browsing, an anonymous IP address with anonymous proxy and anonymous email access without making a single change on your computer? Believe it or not, there is a solution if your computer has a USB port. StealthSurfer has a product that does just that - anonymous browsing using firefox, an anonymous IP address using the anonymizer product, and the thunderbird email client to support your anonymous email send and receive requirements. All of this is loaded and configured to run on a USB device - you plug the USB "dongle" into your company computer and another drive will appear with everything ready to go. Since nothing is stored on the local computer, your files, emails, and activities stay on the USB device - and in your possession. Overall, a good solution to a complicated problem. Go to StealthSurfer
and check it out.
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