Surfing the internet anonymously
Any computer on the internet has a IP address. Your IP address is used to connect to web sites. Therefore any website you visit can see your IP address and use it to track your surfing habits. Your IP address can also be used to find your physical location (where you live). This site will show you the longitude and latitude that goes along with an IP address. Additionally, people or entities that observe your network connection can observe what you are doing on the internet (this includes your internet provider, the government, and other network snoops). Under most circumstances it is OK to surf the internet non-anonymously (standard web browsing). However there are times when it is desirable to surf the internet anonymously.
Reasons to surf the internet anonymously
-You want to visit unscrupulous web sites that use dirty marketing tactics and potentially feed you spyware or viruses.
-You are using the internet is a country that does not want its citizens to have free access to all the information on the internet due to political reasons. For example, China has a national firewall that blocks many sites that go against its policies.
-You don't want your internet service provider or potentially the government to see what you are viewing on the internet.
Fortunately there is a very good and free way to surf the internet anonymously. The package is called Tor bundle. The Tor bundle is made of four programs that work together called Tor, Privoxy, Vidalia, and Torbutton. The Tor bundle strips your personal information from your internet connections and bounces you internet requests through several different servers in the world in encrypted fashion so that no one can see what web pages you are accessing.
Installing and using the Vidalia bundle
The Tor bundle is meant to be used with the Firefox internet browser. If you do not already have the Firefox browser you can download it here, it is free. After installing Firefox you can then precede to download and install the Vidalia bundle. Download the
Tor & Privoxy & Vidalia & Torbutton bundle and use the default setting for installation. Once installed Firefox is ready to be used for anonymous web surfing. The Torbutton in the bottom right of Firefox is used to turn anonymous surfing on or off. You can test whether Tor is effectively masking your location by going to a website that gives you information about your IP address.
Video
Using Tor with Firefox and making sure you are anonymous.