Mark said:
So I am thinking of installing and using a program that will hide
and/or make my IP anonymous. With theft and whatnot these days, I am
thinking I may be better of with this.
Someone - a friend or thief - that uses your computer at their current
location won't be getting your old IP address, anyway. Unless you PAID
for a static IP address (which won't be available elsewhere), you get a
dynamic IP address. Eventually it expires (in a couple days) and
becomes eligible for reassignment to you or someone else. You don't go
anonymous for your IP address because you're worried about theft of
your computer. Your real worry is something that you decided wouldn't
be beneficial for responses to your post.
Plus, I don't necessarily like all websites tracking my moves and
whatnot.
Oh, so you don't trust your ISP and the web sites but you'll trust an
unknown party with your web traffic. Yeah, like that increases
security ... not! With Javascript and cookies (which often are
required for a web site to function), they'll know your host's IP
address or track your web surfing without it (they often don't care
about your IP address).
No, I am not paranoid by default, but just cautious.
Hiding your IP address is not just being cautious. There's a reason
behind it, like wanting to troll a forum, bypass being banned from
there, or fear of an oppressive government in your area. It's not done
because of just curiosity. No one goes to the trouble of setting up and
using proxies because they were merely cautious. They want to hide for
a reason.
Anyhow, I am a very heavy PC user and do quite the variety of things
on my PC. Will using this type of software mess with anything that I
may be used to?
It will slow your web traffic. Why? Because a host had to process the
incoming traffic and separately generate the output traffic to
disconnect the link between the endpoints. It also means a less
reliable Internet connection. Why? Because if that anonymizing proxy
goes down then you no longer have a path to receive that web traffic.
What I mean is, some sites that I do sign into and use frequently, I
want them to store my login.
They can't "store" you login unless you enable cookies. Cookies reside
on your host, not on the intermediate proxy. That means any site that
uses cookies can track you despite using a proxy unless you purge their
cookie after your web session with the target site is over; however,
some sites won't function unless you save their cookie (which is on
your host) so you can't get rid of it until you close the last instance
of the web browser and then purge cookies.
Also, what about XP ftp settings and the like?
If you're using an anonymous FTP server (allows anyone to login), why
do you care if they know your IP address? Most anonymizing proxies
only handle certain protocols, like HTTP. They don't support FTP. If
the FTP site isn't anonymous, you'll have to login using your
credentials for your account so some proxy between you and them is
worthless.
Anybody use these types of programs? Your thoughts?
Yes, I've trialed several to see how they worked. You move your trust
regarding your web traffic from your ISP to an unknown owner of an
unregulated proxy host. Web traffic is slowed. Reliability is
diminished.
Will they interfere with online game play?
Definitely because of the slowdown in delivering traffic. While you're
still trying to move, someone else with a faster connect which includes
not using proxies has already splattered your innards on the wall.
