How do you hide your IP address to the outside world in the simplest
way? I'm not a hacker or anything. I'm just trying to get back into
some forums where my IP address was banned.

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Clarification of Question by kaybli-ga on 22 Nov 2005 03:04 PST

Please provide step by step detailed instructions. I know nothing
about proxies and such.

Hi kaybli-ga,

The easiest way to hide your actual ip address is indeed by using a
non-transparant proxy server. There are several ways of doing this.
The first and easiest is using an online anonymizer. This requires no
tinkering with your browser settings and is probably the best solution
in your case. Simply go to the anonymizer site (see below), enter the
url of the site you want to visit and your ip wil automatically be
hidden. In order to test the anonymizer, visit the site
http://www.whatismyip.com , both directly and through the anonymizer.
The ip address shown should differ when using the anonymizer service.

Some free anonymizer sites:

http://www.the-cloak.com/login.html

http://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/

http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html

http://www.proxybuster.net/Browser.htm

http://proxify.com/

http://www.guardster.com/subscription/proxy_free.php

http://behidden.com/index.php

Note that surfing through a proxy server is usually much slower than
without. Also, some free services will add banners and such.

If these sites don't help solve your issue, please ask for a
clarification and we can try the alternative ways of using a proxy.
These include configuring a proxy from a free/open proxy server list
in your browser settings, or using a stand-alone application, such as
JAP (http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html), to route all your
internet traffic through a proxy server. I'll go into more detail if
you'd like to try these, however the sites listed above should suffice
to access the forum you mentioned without interrupting your regular
internet traffic.

Sincerely,

rhansenne-ga

Search terms used: 'anonymizer' 'hide ip' 'proxy'

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Request for Answer Clarification by kaybli-ga on 23 Nov 2005 12:17 PST

These free sites don't let me login into a page. Anyway around this?

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Clarification of Answer by rhansenne-ga on 24 Nov 2005 07:26 PST

Hi kaybli-ga,

Most free proxy servers do indeed not support post operations (needed
to submit forms, such as when logging in) and make this feature
available in their commercial equivalents.

An alternative would be to install JAP
(http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html) - a free piece of
software which intercepts you internet traffic and routes it through a
proxy server. To use JAP:

* Download the program from their website:
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/win/download_en.html

* Run the installer. At the end of the installation offers you the
ability to automatically re-configure your browser (IE or
Netscape/Firefox) to use JAP. Let it do so.

* Start JAP (you will find a new entry in the Programs folder of your
Start menu) and set 'anonymity' to 'on'. Now start your browser and
you should be surfing anonymously (you can again test this with
http://www.whatismyip.com).

* In order to surf without JAP after you're done, you can click on the
'Automatically configure the browser' icon in the JAP program group
and choose the 'restore configuration' option.

Hope this helps. If you run into any problems, please let me know.

Sincerely,

rhansenne-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by kaybli-ga on 30 Nov 2005 11:41 PST

ok, works great. Just a little slow sometimes. Any way to randomize
your IP every time you you log into a site?

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Clarification of Answer by rhansenne-ga on 01 Dec 2005 08:35 PST

You could manually configure a different proxy server every time you
log in. A complete tutorial on configuring your browser and daily
updated lists of proxy servers can be found here:

http://tools.rosinstrument.com/proxy/howto.htm (only the first half of
the page is relevant in this case)

Note that these free, open proxy servers are often unreliable and
become unavailable quite quickly, so it might take a while before you
find one that works (at an acceptable speed) for you.

perfect and simple.

leeching isn't cool, but if you have a cable modem.  You may have a
chance.  go to  www.myipaddress.com   this is the ip address you isp
gives you.  most isp's don't give out static ip addresses unless you
pay extra for them, so leave you cable modem unplugged while you are
away from the house.  then plug it back in later and just maybe your
ip address will change.  you can use www.myipaddress.com to check.  if
you are using a router, i know linksys and dlink have the option of
cloning your pc's MAC address, If you haven't already cloned your PC's
MAC address, this will work for sure.  Clone it and then Renew your
DHCP lease( if you don't know how just clone it and then unplug your
router and cable modem for a few seconds then plug them back in)  this
will give you a new ip address and will let you access the site

if this is for torrents, i don't think what is above is going to
work,, if you've been blacklisted you need a new ip address, because
your bit torrent client will not be able to use the proxy

if you're looking for free and relatively reliable web-based
anonymizers...then look into nph-proxy's...they're a cgi based proxy
that allow for cookie management, as well as POST method
submisions..the easiest way to find them is by searching
"inurl:nph-proxy.cgi" or "inurl:nph-proxy.pl" (with quotes) on
google...i also know that http://www.omgwtf.us as a relatively updated
list of nph-proxys out there...not a huge list...but decent
nontheless....

as for changing your mac address...it really depends on your isp...if
they choose to assign your ip based on your mac address...it won't
matter how many times you shut down your computer...cablemodem...or
what not...if you're using the same network card...you're going to
renew to the same ip...and as mentioned by cjdavis-ga...if you change
your mac address...your isp now thinks your network card is a new
one...and assigns a new ip...assuming you're not behind a router of
any sort...the easiest program to use is called Kmac...found at
www.neset.com ...while other programs like Smac seem to be making the
rounds for popularity...kmac doesn't require you to install
anything...so it's easy to carry around on your flashdrive later...