How do I Hide My IP Address? 3 Easy Ways
In this article, we will explain in detail what an IP address is and reveal simple methods on how you can hide your IP address.
How to Hide My IP Address
All devices that are connected to an internet connection have their IP address. As you can understand, there are billions of IP addresses worldwide.
IP addresses are visible to everyone on the internet. According to the IP address, other internet users can track your location, which provider you use to connect to the internet, and much more.
In this article, we will explain in detail what an IP address is and reveal simple methods on how you can hide your IP address.
What is an IP address?
First of all, an IP address is a number assigned by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and is attached to every device online. It serves a purpose to effectively communicate with other online resources. There are two types of IP addresses: IPv4 and IPv6. If you want to learn more, check out our blog post about IPv4 vs IPv6 differences.
Think of an IP address as a personal ID card that classifies every device connected to the internet. To some extent, it functions just like our physical addresses do, identifying where the letters, parcels, and other goods should be delivered.
Without an IP address, you wouldn’t be able to access the mighty internet. Clearly, IP address is a necessity, but what information about you does it reveal to the public?
Well, your IP address mostly reveals information related to an IP address origin and its geolocation:
- The Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- The IPs hostname
- Country, region/state, city, latitude and longitude, and area code
- Any recognized services running on IP address
From the first sight, this might seem reasonable enough, but as always, there is a catch.
5 ways to hide your IP address
If you want to hide your tracks online, there are many ways to do it. We will cover a few options on how to hide your IP address. Do not forget that every choice depends on your goals and why you need to hide your IP address.
1. Use a proxy
Proxy or a proxy server has its own IP address and acts as an intermediary between you and the internet. When internet users utilize a proxy, their internet request flow through the proxy server first, and only then connects to online resources. Once a proxy server collects the response from the web servers, it passes it back to the user, ensuring enhanced levels of anonymity, as a user’s real IP address is not exposed.
What’s more, proxies unlock further benefits to their users. Each residential proxy is tied to a specific location and provides access to geo-blocked content, even if the real IP address doesn’t have the power to access this particular online material. So if you’re looking to access content in Brazil, you can simply choose to use a Brazil proxy, or German proxy for Germany.
If you are looking to implement proxies into your online browser, check out how to set up a proxy in Chrome. Setting up proxies in your browser enhances your privacy and security levels online.
2. Use a VPN
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and this is the most common way to hide your IP address. VPN is able to access region-restricted sites, protect your browsing activity, and more.
When you are connecting to the internet, VPN works as an intermediary by hiding your IP address and creating a secure tunnel where your data is encoded. Websites only see the VPN server’s IP address and not your own. Also, these websites can not access your real browsing data because it is encrypted. You can find more details on both proxies and VPNs by reading our article “Proxy vs VPN“.
3. Use TOR
TOR is open-source software that enables anonymous communication. Using TOR is a suitable solution to hide your IP address entirely. To put it simply, your traffic is directed through a bunch of different servers before reaching the targeted website.
You can use TOR if you are searching for a free and easily accessible way to hide your IP address. However, this solution can noticeably slow down your internet connection. You should decide if this way fits your needs.
Also, if you are searching for more free ways how to hide your IP address, you can try a private search engine DuckDuckGo. To answer a question: does DuckDuckGo hide your IP address, you can be sure that no one can track your browsing activity.
4. Use mobile network
If you are searching for a fast way to hide your IP address, you can use your mobile network. Your IP address is able to change every time you turn on your mobile data. This makes your traffic less traceable.
You should know that this solution will slow connection speeds, use up your data plan, and data is not encrypted. This option will help you in certain situations, for example, when your IP is being attacked.
5. Connect to public Wi-Fi
Using your computer to connect to an open Wi-Fi network is a simple way to hide your IP address. However, there are many risks when connecting to public hotspots networks. For example, usually, there are many unchecked connections at the same time. Also, an unsecured public network creates security risks for your device.
You should think of this option in exceptional situations as hiding your IP address to hedge from hackers.
Reasons to hide your IP address
If you have thoughts about why to hide my IP address, we will cover the most common reasons why you should consider this.
For example, the more you connect, the easier it becomes to see the full picture, which allows to find out your actual name, surname, and, sometimes, even a physical address that is associated with the IP address in question. Masking IP addresses may be the best solution if you want to feel safer while browsing the internet. Also, check out more reason why you should think of ways to hide IP address:
Hide your location
Usually, your IP does not reveal your full address. However, the web admin may have a clue about your location from the IP address. If you want to stay completely anonymous, hiding your IP address with proxies from, let’s say, Germany, Canada, or the USA may be the most common solution to do it.
Bypass Network Restrictions
There are networks that restrict certain content you can access. Using a different IP address will get you past limitations and make your internet activity more simple.
Avoid IP bans
If you are interested in web scraping, you should know that the common issue is IP blocks by targeted servers. As a website gets a lot of requests when web scraping, your activity may be detected as suspicious, and you will be blocked. In this case, it is necessary to hide or even use rotating proxies.
Block targeted attacks
Hackers will not see your real IP, so they can not be traced back to you. They will not know who or where you are, so it makes a lot more difficult to do any damage.
More causes to hide your IP address
An IP address leaves its traces online, which makes it possible to determine a user’s behavior on the web for ISPs and eager onlookers. For instance, the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s Office (OPC) experimented with how much information they can gather from a random IP address.
Only by using an IP address as a search term (something every single person can do online), they managed to uncover shockingly detailed information about the user’s online habits. They found out that users behind the chosen IP address visited sites related to specific religious groups, learned about their fitness preferences, and got access to online photo-sharing platform discussion boards where the person took part.
Would a business hide their IP address?
At the beginning of the article, we raised a question whether online businesses should be cautious about their privacy and hide the IP addresses?
The answer is not that simple. In the cybersecurity industry, companies need to hide their IP addresses in order to stay anonymous when performing protective actions, like anti-phishing. However, in the e-commerce world, companies have to be visible, well, in order to do business on the internet. Their websites are usually the primary source that generates the most sales. This means their web pages are connected to an IP address.
What’s more, for effective email communication with their consumers, a public IP address is required. This IP address directs email to the business’ domain address. At this point you may think that there is no way businesses would choose to hide their IP addresses. However, they do. Businesses hide their web servers’ IP addresses, and one of the ways is by using a reverse proxy. A reverse proxy receives a request from internet users, passes it to a web server that can fulfil it, and brings back the server’s response to the user. This means that the real web server’s IP address is never exposed.
Wrapping it up
Now you know what your IP address can reveal, and different ways how to stop websites from tracking your IP address. The safest and common methods are proxies, or you can use a VPN. What’s more, it brings a further benefit to access content despite geo-blocks. The important part is that choosing a way to hide your IP address depends on your needs.
When it comes to businesses hiding their IP addresses, they choose to reverse their proxies. This allows companies to hide their public IP addresses in order to secure themselves and their infrastructure.
If you have any further questions or would like to start using our proxies to enhance your privacy online, contact us at [email protected].
How do I Hide My IP Address? 3 Easy Ways
Your IP address is a unique identifier that tells websites and services who you are online — so it’s understandable that you’d want to conceal it from time to time. Learn how to hide your IP address with three internet privacy tools: VPNs, Tor, and proxy servers. In the meantime, you can start hiding your IP address right now with Avast SecureLine VPN.
Copy article link
Link Copied
Written by Ivan Belcic
Published on April 8, 2020
What is an IP address, anyway?
An IP address is a series of numbers that identifies your device or network on the internet. Activity on the internet is a series of two-way communications between clients — software, such as a web browser, that requests data — and servers, which reply to clients with responses. Every client has an IP address that tells servers who is making the request.
This Article Contains:
This Article Contains:
This Article Contains:
So, it’s easy to understand what an IP address is and also why they’re important. IP addresses let search engines like Google know where to send the results of a search, help websites know who’s visiting their site, and make sure you receive the emails that are addressed to you.
In other words, IP addresses undergird how the internet works in general. Thankfully, it’s very easy to find your IP address if you need this information. One of the most straightforward ways to check your public IP is with an online ‘What’s my IP’ tool.
Three ways to hide your IP
Now, let’s take a look at three tools you can use to hide your IP address. Each offers its own blend of privacy, security, and practicality.
1. Use a VPN
A VPN is an intermediary server that encrypts your connection to the internet — and it also hides your IP address. A VPN encrypts all your traffic, not only in your browser but also in other apps, and then passes traffic onward to its destination. They’re a popular privacy solution, and as such, there’s a strong incentive for VPN providers to design tools that are as easy to use as they are secure.
Here’s how to hide your IP address with a VPN: Simply download a VPN such as Avast SecureLine VPN, log in, and turn it on to protect both your IP address and your internet traffic.
How does a VPN hide your IP address?
When you’re using a VPN on Windows or other platforms, your IP address is hidden because your traffic takes a detour through the VPN server. When your traffic — sites visited, online apps used, uploads, downloads, etc. — reaches its destination, it does so under a “virtual” IP address assigned by the VPN.
There’s only one party who’ll be able to see your actual IP address: your VPN provider. That’s why you should choose a trusted VPN provider that isn’t going to keep logs on your activity.
Avast SecureLine VPN is a safe, secure, and convenient way to mask your IP address. It’ll hide your online activity from your internet service provider (ISP), employer, school, and anyone else on your network, including a snooping cybercriminal. And we never keep any logs on sites you visit, apps you use, or content you view.
2. Use Tor
Comprising thousands of volunteer-run server nodes, Tor is a free network that conceals your identity online via multiple layers of encryption. When you access Tor, typically by using the free Tor Browser, your traffic is relayed and encrypted through a series of three relay nodes, each of which decrypts one layer of encryption to learn the identity of the next node. When your traffic leaves the final node, it’s fully decrypted and sent to its destination.
The relay system hides your IP address, but not without cost: because Tor’s encryption system is so thorough, it takes a long time for your traffic to complete its journey. You’ll be sacrificing browsing speed for Tor’s anonymity. This is a worthwhile tradeoff when it really counts, such as for whistleblowers and political dissidents. But if you’re simply seeking to hide your IP address, when comparing Tor and a VPN, you’ll find a VPN to be a far more convenient and faster solution.
How does Tor hide your IP address?
When you use Tor, each relay node along your traffic’s pathway through the Tor network knows only the IP address of the node immediately before and after it. Even if an attacker manages to intercept your traffic while it travels from the final node to your destination server, it’d be very difficult at that point to parse your original IP address.
3. Use a proxy
A proxy server handles your internet traffic on your behalf. A proxy sits in front of a client or network of clients, forwarding requests while also receiving and delivering responses from servers. You may need to manually adjust your device’s proxy settings if you want to use a proxy.
Unlike a VPN, most proxies won’t encrypt your traffic, and they also won’t hide your IP address from anyone who can intercept your traffic on its way from your device to the proxy. Proxy servers, especially free web-based proxies, tend to be less reliable than VPNs. That’s why proxies are best used as a quick, temporary solution as opposed to a long-term privacy plan.
How does a proxy hide your IP address?
Some proxy servers can mask your IP address with a fake one. You’ll appear as though you’re based in the same country as your proxy server. If you’re using a proxy to hide your IP, be aware that not all proxies offer equal protection.
- Transparent proxies conceal neither your IP address nor your use of a proxy.
- Anonymous proxies hide your IP address but not your use of a proxy.
- High anonymity (or elite) proxies hide both your IP address as well as your use of a proxy.
Some sites or content platforms may block traffic from known proxies, so you’ll have to be careful if you’re trying to use a proxy to access media.
Why should I hide my IP address?
Your IP address identifies you online, and in today’s data-driven world, your online activity is very valuable. It’s important to hide your IP address so that you can regain control over your privacy while you’re online. Among other sensitive info, your IP can reveal your shopping and buying habits as well as your physical location. So why hide your IP? You’ve got plenty to gain, and not much to lose.
Hide your IP to browse anonymously
Advertisers and marketers can track you across the internet and analyze your browsing habits with the goal of marketing to you more effectively. Unfortunately, even hiding your IP address won’t stop them, because tracking cookies also deliver this information — which is why you should regularly take the time to delete cookies from your browser.
To take private internet browsing to the next level, consider a dedicated private browser like Avast Secure Browser. It includes a range of advanced anti-tracking features to let you use the internet without leaving any clues behind that companies and individuals can use to follow your activity.
Hide your IP to shield your location
Hide your IP address behind another IP in a different part of the world and no one will know where you really are. This includes websites and services that host geo-restricted content. For example, if you’re traveling abroad and want to access movies or TV shows that are available only for your home country, you can use a VPN or proxy to unblock that website with a false IP address in the correct location.
Many IP addresses are linked to a real-world address, or at least to a general location. If you’re frequently using false IP addresses to change your online location, no one will be able to figure out where you actually are.
Can my IP address ever truly be hidden?
While it’s not possible to hide your IP address from everyone, you can achieve an effective level of privacy sufficient for everyday needs. With a VPN, the only entity that can link your online activity to your IP address is your VPN provider itself. This is why it’s so important to choose a VPN provider with a reliable reputation for security, and one that doesn’t keep logs of user activity.
Your ISP can see the type, timing, and amount of traffic you’re sending to the VPN server, but they won’t know the specifics. The same goes for Tor. Many proxies don’t encrypt your traffic, and so your ISP will be able to access your activity if it wants to while you’re using a proxy. And, as mentioned earlier, all the websites and services you use while connected to a VPN will see only the VPN’s IP address, not yours.
The primary purpose for hiding your IP address is to protect your online activity and location from third-party observers: websites, advertisers who use ad tracking techniques, and cybercriminals. When your safety and privacy is at risk, it’s important to be proactive.
What is IP masking?
IP masking is the technique of concealing your IP address by adopting a false one. This is how hiding your IP address works — they’re two ways to refer to the same thing. If you’re interested in learning how to mask your IP address, you can apply the same techniques described in this article. After all, the only way to hide your IP address and still use the internet is to mask it behind another one.
Your traffic is always going to need an IP address online, since that’s how websites and services know who’s making the requests and where to send the replies. Clients use IP addresses to reach servers, and servers use IP addresses to send requested data back to the correct client.
That request-and-response system is part of the TCP/IP model, which governs how devices on the internet communicate with one each another. IP addresses are classified in a variety of ways: IPv4 vs. IPv6, public vs. local, and static vs. dynamic IP addresses. Read more about IP addresses here.
Hide your IP the easy way with a VPN
Avast SecureLine VPN lets you hide your IP address by choosing from any one of our blazing-fast servers located in dozens of countries all over the world. With your online activity securely encrypted and our no-logging policy, you’ll be able to easily access blocked content, disrupt tracking techniques, and browse the internet freely, with complete confidence in your online privacy.