Computer newbies forum: Hide My IP address

Thank you for your response.

I did google HIDE IP ADDRESS -- and couldn't understand which one to use.

If anyone has any suggestions: I'm using a Mac, and Firefox. And I'd like to download a free software.
I tried a few, and they were all MS-DOS .exe files and I didn't know how to open them on my MacBook. Maybe I'm just a real newbie with this Mac... But I would love someone to point me in the right direction for a software suitable for my needs.

Thanks again!

thanx for infn. very helpful!!!!

or just renew your ip adress ( this shold work for mac just right clik the moneter looking icon and hit repair)

hi pdietze,
hiding your IP address is not so hard nowadays, you can use one of those anonymous proxy websites like above but a better way is to use the Tor system. Very easy to install and use. It also has a one click on/off button for Firefox (I hope you are using Firefox??). Tor uses whats called an Onion Ring system, it routes packets all over the world to different servers so there is now way to be traced. Just visit the Tor website: http://www.torproject.org/ and download and install the bundle which includes vidalia. Once installed just visit http://whatismyipaddress.ricmedia.com/ to check your IP number, it should be different everytime you visit that page.

Cheers and hope this helps
waytoomuchcoffee

How can you hide your IP adress?
If you use a proxy server, have you considered whether or not it is transparent? If it is transparent, most sites won't be able to search for you. Your email will give away your IP.
Anonymous surfing through Tor: Don't bet on it. The servers are checked and the transfer rate is slow. One server and a few hundred nodes can't push much traffic.

So what do you do?
If you do not want your IP address to be seen, here is a simple method.

Have three other friends and yourself install any distribution of Linux or a flover of *BSD. Enable desktop sharing on each. Create a user for each of your friends and be sure they create one for you. Remote login/ssh to one friends computer. Remote login to a second. Remote login to the third. Start the graphical environment. Start surfing. Your IP is hidden. Theirs, though, is not. This is known as tunneling.

Yes, you need to use a proxy server to re-route your Internet traffic. The problem with the public ones is that they are often not anonymous (they still report your IP). You can get a program from http://www.iprivacytools.com (I think the program is free, and they only charge for server access, or something like that).