Anonymous Surfing

[NJSS]

I am becoming increasingly concerned by the collection of data relating to my IP Address by both commercial concerns, such as Google, and by state institutions such as the British & American governments.

I want to move to Anonymous Surfing, and would appreciate recommendations from others who have tried services such as:-

Proxify

Anonymouse

The Cloak

Anonymizer

I am using XPPro SP 2 + Firefox 3.0.8

Many thanks

Nigel

[FMRocks]

I doubt you can ever have completely anonymous surfing, and perhaps that's for the better. Without getting into a moral/political argument, though, darn near impossible for you computer to connect to the world wide web without telling the world wide web how it is to be identified (i.e. its IP address). It is not so much that Google will keep track of your IP, but that your Internet Service Provider will. In reality, there are only ways to mask your trail, with removable masks, but no way to completely erase it.

[DrStrabismus]

Originally Posted by FMRocks

darn near impossible for you computer to connect to the world wide web without telling the world wide web how it is to be identified (i.e. its IP address). It is not so much that Google will keep track of your IP, but that your Internet Service Provider will.

If you use a proxy the website sees the proxy's address. If you use an encrypted connection to the proxy, your isp only knows you are connecting to the proxy.

If you don't have an encrypted connection to the proxy, your isp can log the http requests.

[filtered]

I use Hotspotvpn2 http://www.hotspotvpn.com/ on my PC.

[nooby]

I am a total noob so I can be very wrong but AFAIK it is doubtful that one can do total anonymous surfing.

One can maybe do it illegally using neighbors wifi and then only if you mask the MAC info on your computer and what if the authorities log everything for years and then make a compare to patterns of your behavior, which urls you look at and how you behave they sooner or later will know more and more about you.

I would not trust one can be total anon. Maybe for a while.

[mister]

I've only used this once or twice
http://scroogle.org/
This works well
www.ultrareach.com
These I use all the time
www.freeproxies.org
www.primeproxies.com
www.surfunblocked.com
My current favorite
www.webhoneynet.com

[Aimlink]

Originally Posted by filtered

I use Hotspotvpn2 http://www.hotspotvpn.com/ on my PC.

Do they keep logs on the sites you visit or do they delete any such logs? This is a common issue with most commercially available anonymisers. Though they will make you anonymous to sites you visit, they may still wish to monitor to ensure that their proxies aren't being used for illegal purposes and would be willing to hand over logs to the authorities upon request during investigations.

[filtered]

Originally Posted by Aimlink

Do they keep logs on the sites you visit or do they delete any such logs? This is a common issue with most commercially available anonymisers. Though they will make you anonymous to sites you visit, they may still wish to monitor to ensure that their proxies aren't being used for illegal purposes and would be willing to hand over logs to the authorities upon request during investigations.

Hotspotvpn Privacy Policy http://www.hotspotvpn.com/privacypolicy.asp?mm=4

Internet Traffic Privacy

WiFiConsulting, Inc. does not and will not record, sniff, scan or view any HotSpotVPN user's Internet traffic.

As with any organization we deal with on the Internet, we either take them at their word or we don't.
I believe them. On the other hand I do not engage in any illegal activity so I don't worry about it.

[mister]

Free for personal use
http://easy-vpn.comodo.com/index.html


"Comodo EasyVPN allows businesses and home users to quickly group
multiple computers into a secure, peer to peer, network over the
Internet. EasyVPN requires no expert configuration, is fast and easy to
set up and uses 128 bit encryption to recreate a cabled local area
network over the Internet.
Comes complete with a secure instant messenger client that allows you to
chat and send/receive confidential files over an encrypted communications
channel
Allows users to quickly and securely gain 'remote desktop' control over
the computers of other users or to securely telecommute into your office
computer
Businesses can securely link office branches under a VPN for the purposes
of collaboration, sharing access to local servers and to to provide
access to internal networks for remote workers
Uses industry standard technologies and protocols so no additional
software or hardware reconfiguration is necessary. It even works
seamlessly with corporate Network Address Translation systems (NATs)
Unlimited possibilities - use EasyVPN to share your iTunes music, your
photograph collection or even setup a multi-player gaming session
No learning curve - EasyVPN has none of the complexities of other VPN
solutions, can be setup in minutes and is suitable for users of all
experience levels


Comodo EasyVPN is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions and is free to
download and use"


Windows Vista/XP 32 bit/64 bit

[Bamb0]

Originally Posted by filtered

I use Hotspotvpn2 http://www.hotspotvpn.com/ on my PC.

That looks GOOD but how can ya really trust who is running THAT thing?