How Do I Change My IP?

[wimiadmin]

Using any proxy service, you are putting yourself at risk. Not really so much that they can install software on your computer, but because you're going through their service, they control your connection basically. If you go to www.whatismyip.com via the proxy, if they have their own IP page, they can easily redirect you to their page. They can also hit you with popups, etc.

Not to say that it's totally unsafe, but just surf smart. If you don't normally get popups when you're not using a proxy and suddenly when using a proxy you do get popups, then you'll know that the proxy you're using may not be reputable.

Also keep an eye on the URLs to make sure you're going where you want to go.

The proxy service also will have your traffic log of where you went while on their system. They may choose to keep this for their stats or dump it as soon as you leave.

Those are the risks I can think of....their might be more. Perhaps someone who uses a proxy more often can chime in and give their 2 cents. It might be better than my 2 cents.

[systemslave]

Generally you get what you pay for. If you pay for a proxy service they will have a statement regarding their policy for record keeping and cooperation with outside agencies.

What I personally find interesting is the trust non-techs put in services like web proxies. Even if you are using a web proxy and only using http or https you can be tracked by other methods including JAVA (see http://www.cloakfish.com/?tab=proxy-analysis) or cookies (see http://forum.whatismyip.com/showthre...=2751#post2751) or other means.

That does not even address the fact that most of the folks who think they are anonymous give themselves away. They go to a registered email account that they have used when they were not anonymous or they run any number of apps that use non-proxied data. Many non-technical users don't even realize that email, www, file sharing, messengers, games, etc. do not use the same ports for data communications. That means that you may proxy one but not all of them. The most secure 'anonymizer' average users can employ is a VPN tunnel service. This service captures all of the traffic to your network card (not just some of it like a web proxy) and sends it through an encrypted tunnel to a machine somewhere else in the world. That machine then acts as the far end of your network card and does all of your network access.

But realistically folks, this is like the question "how can I speed and not get a ticket?" There are a lot of options to make you less likely to get caught, but nothing to make you impervious. How bad you choose to be will be a deciding factor in how bad someone wants to catch you.