Where do you send letters to your friends? On their physical addresses right? Similarly, when you surf the web, each device is assigned a unique IP address. It is essentially the address that directs devices on where they have to deliver information. This information can backfire hence you must hide IP address.
Just like your house address, your IP address can tell a lot about you:
- Region
- City of Residence
- Country
- ZIP code
- Exact Longitude
- Exact Latitude
Hence, your IP address can help potential attackers and stalkers track you to your exact location if they wanted to.
In addition to hackers and intruders, the government and your Internet Service Provider can also keep a check on your online and browsing activities. So, IP address is a threat to your privacy as well folks.
All in all, in a nutshell, the only answer to the question, “Should I hide my IP address?” is Yes.
Hide IP Address and Safeguard Your Identity
Attention FireStick Users: Important Notice before you continue reading!
While most of you may or may not know, Governments and ISPs worldwide have a strict check on their users online activities. In case, any copyrighted content is found streaming, you can land into serious consequences which may be as severe as suspending of your online account. Please know, that your current 18.97.14.83 is visible to everyone.
Why Hide IP Address?
With your IP address in hand, it is extremely easy for anyone to keep tabs on you. Here are all the reasons for which you need to hide your IP address:
- ISPs are bound by law in many countries to keep tabs on the online activity of their users.
- Governments need your IP address for censorship purposes.
- The law enforcement agencies can open your data without issuing any warrant using your IP address.
- Copyright Companies may keep a track of your activities to find any torrented content that you may have been downloading.
- Hackers and Intruders might track you to hack into your device and steal your personal data.
- Advertisers also keep a track of your activities to find out user likes and their digital footprint.
Moreover, certain websites and companies will attempt to toggle your online experience according to the searches you conduct on your IP address specifically.
So, it is important that you get back your digital freedom by hiding your IP address.
Here is what we are going to do, we will guide you on the top ways you can use to hide IP address. Stay tuned folks!
How to Hide IP Address?
1. Use a Good VPN
A VPN or the Virtual Private Network is essentially a service used to encrypt your online data and route it using the VPN to another location.
Many of the VPN services require a subscription fee of a few dollars, all the user has to do is sign up and download it on the device in use. After this, setting up the VPN and hiding your IP address is simple.
Best VPN:
IPVanish has been the fastest and most reliable secure VPN we have come across so far. Their servers are widespread and strictly secured. The VPN is very easy to install and user-friendly on every device including the Amazon Fire TV Stick. If you are not sure about the app, it comes with a 7-day money back guarantee with a refund. IPVanish also has a very attractive deal in which, when paid for a whole year subscription you can avail 46% discount on your annual plan!
Register for IPVanish VPN, by clicking on the link(our readers get an exclusive hefty discount, so make sure you are making the most of out it!)
- On your FireStick device, go to the homepage and type in and search for ‘IPVanish VPN’ in your search bar.
- Click on the IPVanishVPN you see in your search.
- Click on ‘Download’.
- Once downloaded, you would need to register with the username and password information you must have provided while registering.
- Once signed-in, click on ‘Connect’.
- Soon you would be connected. You can disconnect from the connection whenever you wish to stop using a VPN.
2. Make Use of a Proxy
To explain in simple words, a proxy is like a middleman connecting your internet to your device. So if you use a proxy, others will see the proxy’s IP address instead of your IP address.
You must be wondering that VPN is also a sort of proxy but when we mention proxy we mean the SOCKS, SSL or SSH proxy. These are the services that do not offer fancy security features but effectively hide IP address.
3. Use Tor Browser Free of Cost
Tor is the abbreviation for The Onion Router which is run by operators providing decentralized anonymous network services. Once you get connected to Tor, your internet activity will be encrypted and routed using any sequence called “exit nodes“, which is what other websites will be able to see.
And every time you open a website, the node sequence will change hence, no one will be able to track your IP address.
Simply download the Tor Browser and install it.
4. Get Connected to a Different Network
If you change your network connection, your IP address is bound to change as well. Hence, if you are suspecting that your IP address is under surveillance you can simply change your network connection.
You can simply change your connection to a private or public network or use your mobile data.Note: Open public networks are not safe in fact are a breeding ground for hackers and intruders, use the ones which are password protected.
5. Request IP Address change from your ISP
ISP is your go-to entity if you want to change your IP address. You can contact them through call services and request to change your IP address. However, you will be required to provide account information and the current IP address during the procedure.
Changing IP address is not difficult at all! However you can expect it to change after a while. This is necessary because the number of IP adresses available are limited. So these Dynamic IP adresses can change once in a blue moon.
However you can also purchase Static IP address with some extra fee.
6. Try unplugging your modem if you want to change your IP address
Although this method is not a “highly recommended one”, it does have fair chances of working if you have a dynamic IP address. You will often be assigned a new IP address if you completely unplug your modem and replug it after a while.
How that works? Its simple when you disconnect with your ISP, your current IP address is recycled and at the time of re-connection, you are instead assigned a new one. A simple hack to make sure this method work is to leave the modem unplugged for as long as possible.
7. Make Use of a NAT Firewall
The advantage of using a NAT Firewall is that many devices connected to a single network can use a central IP address but will still have their own unique IP which would be private. This Firewall will transmit data using the unique private IP of each of the devices but under the name of the public IP address.
Even though, NAT Firewall does not hide the public IP address but keeps the private one private! A clever hack, no?
8. Change your Private IP Address
You can easily change your private IP to hide your IP address by adding some simple commands on your Windows or Mac device.Follow these simple steps to change your IP address on Windows:
- Open the Command Prompt and right tap to open the option for Run as administrator.
- Type this ipconfig /release
- Then enter the following ipconfig /renew
You will now be looking at a new local IP when you search for one.Follow these simple steps to change your IP address on MacOS:
- Tap on Apple menu and navigate to System Preferences.
- Now click on Network.
- Choose the network that you are currently in connection with.
- Then press Advanced.
- Now you need to select the tab for TCP/IP.
- In the end, tap on Renew DHCP Lease.
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