At the dawn of the Internet the mass popularity of the network has generated a myth on impunity for any virtual actions. And only today we received a real chance to remain anonymous when visiting the World Wide Web - VPN programs and services to hide IP address of the computer.
Before the invention of the technology for traffic encryption and creation of data exchange tunnels the exact location of any computer could be easily traced. Each workstation is assigned a unique identifier - the IP address, which you cannot hide yourself. And it is the IP address shown in the network statistics of the ISP, registering the data on visits to all web resources, downloaded files, and any other online manipulations.
Theoretically, anyone with certain technical skills can track the chain of user actions on the Internet, from visiting a specific page of the site to information about the ISP and even data about the place of residence. Of course, not everyone has the means, skills and authorities to find the home address of a user; this option is only available for the respective authorities and notorious hackers. However, if you do not hide your IP-address by using special software, anyone can easily learn the country and the region where the user has logged into the Internet even from the messages on social networks.
To feel as safe as possible on the net and not worry about the history of personal traffic getting into the hands of third parties, we can take advantage of modern developments in the field of IT. The technology which provides for hiding the real IP-address of the workstation is called VPN (Virtual Private Network), and the application used for these purposes is called the anonymizer. This bundle operates through the creation of a secure channel which exchanges encrypted data.
On the user end the traffic is anonymized by a small application running in background and not affecting the performance and load of the computer. This specialized software that hides IP and encrypts traffic is created by experienced developers, and you can download the installation package directly from their website. Installation is extremely simple and fast. The application will not take up much space on your hard drive; it takes only an unnoticeable part of resources of even a weak CPU and RAM and can run automatically at startup.
Being installed on a personal computer the program encrypts only the outgoing requests of the user, while all other operations to guarantee the work of anonymizer are performed on a remote server that provides for hiding the IP.
The user sends a request not to the target page, but rather to a dedicated virtual server, which processes the data, hides the IP address by replacing it with a different one, and then redirects the owner of the program to the desired web resource. As a result of this procedure, the real IP of the user is not registered anywhere, even in the ISP’s traffic history, while all the information about the visited pages and downloaded files turns into an array of unidentifiable data.
Encryption code is very complicated and impossible to be cracked even with comprehensive computing powers. A simple program on the user's computer changes the IP address every time login and password are entered. In a special field of the program’s interface you can choose the country and the region to disguise the hidden workstation.
Anonymizer not only allows the user to hide real location, preserve the IP-address in secret and visit any sites incognito, but it also opens up broad information prospects.
It is no secret that many gaming and entertainment platforms, video sharing resources and trackers are linked to a particular region. Media files, services, and games available for one country may be blocked for users in other parts of the world. Modern anonymizers are able to bypass this block by hiding real IP-address of the user and replacing it with a different one.
Using VPN server as an element of a local virtual network, the owner of the anonymizer is no longer limited in choice of sources of information and may register accounts in any communities and MMORPG games, download and watch online media files on any sites.
In addition, VPN service is able to get around corporate security when the access to social networks or entertainment web resources is blocked on your work computer.
The anonymizer program hides real IP-address of the workstation, and even the company’s system administrator will not be able to track the traffic of the user of VPN application by logs. Thus, a simple-looking application boasts significant functionality to create the freest conditions for visiting the Internet on any workstation or personal computer.