How to use proxies
Dave
Just like http://www.megaproxy.com and http://www.anonymizer.com there
are thousands of free proxies which allow you connect anonymously and
securely to the website of your choosing.
Go to http://proxysite.com/ and choose a proxy computer in the country
of your choice. There are anonymous proxies, and transparent proxies,
and you want to choose an anonymous proxy that totally masks your IP
from the website (i.e. computer) which you connect to.
Once you've chosen your proxy, open Internet Explorer 5.5 and go to
Tools/Internet Options/Connections
If you have cable modem or broadband connection click on "LAN
Settings," check "Use a proxy server" and enter the proxy IP number,
and port in the boxes.
If you're on a dialup connection go to Tools/Internet
Options/Connections
In the white "Dial-up settings" box, highlight the connection you use.
Click on "Settings." Check "Use a proxy server" and enter the proxy
IP number, and port in the boxes.
Click "Okay."
Once you have your proxy, go to http://www.all-nettools.com/pr.htm to
check if you are really anonymous.
Connecting to a proxy server is just like connecting to a website.
All the internet is, is computers, and a webserver which serves
websites, is just another computer. When you connect to the website
Yahoo for example, you are immediately proxied through several other
computers which handle Yahoo's web traffic. The "web address" is just
a mask for a computer's IP number. For instance
http://www.all-nettools.com is just a domain name for the computer at
IP address http://216.92.207.177. Connect to http://216.92.207.177
and you will see that it is exactly the same website.
To clear your computer of your past surfing content,
Go to Tools/Internet Options/General/
Clear History
Delete Files
Delete Files-Delete Offline Content
Then go to the tab "Content" AutoComplete - Clear Forms, Clear
Passwords.
To make sure the websites aren't tracking you, delete all your cookies
Go to Windows Explorer
C:/Windows/Temporary Internet Files/
Edit/"Select All" or Cntrl+A
Delete
C:/Windows/Cookies
Delete
C:/Windows/Temp/Cookies
Delete
To turn off your cookies so that you don't have to delete them as
often, in Internet Explorer 5.5 go to Tools/Internet Options/Security
"Custom Level," scroll down until you see "Allow cookies that are
stored on your computer," select Disable, and click Okay.
If anyone knows anything else to clear, please let me know. Remember,
your Internet Service Provider (ISP) could still be watching you, but
if you connect through a proxy they would have packet sniff to see
what you're looking at. Yet if you post something through a proxy you
can still be traced if the proxy computer you connect through keeps
logs.
In my opinion, the internet should be 100% anonymous in any case. No
one has any authority to look at any of your web communications
without a court order, and countries have no authority to regulate
communications between people, on the net or otherwise.
It's also a good idea to have a good firewall. Zone Alarm is one of
the best, you can download for free at
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp
For more information on the internet and to test the safety of your
computer, go to http://www.grc.com or http://www.privacy.net.
It's also a good idea to change your network connections so that your
TCP/IP protocol is not bound to the Client for Microsoft Networks.
You can learn how to do this at http://www.grc.com. This makes it
harder for people to hack in over Netbios port 139 (yet if you have a
good firewall, they won't be able to in any case).
For more information on your internet connection, the winipcfg and
netstat commands are useful. These can be accessed from the START/Run
box or from DOS if you're on a Win 98 or older operating system.