IP Address Tools on ipinfo.info
Google IP
Google search page with My IP Address added.
Makes a good browser start page.
IP Toolbar
Powerful IP Address Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
IP address toolbar with direct access to security tools
small IP page
Small My IP Address webpage
micro IP page
Minimalistic My IP Address webpage (for PDAs)
IP Buttons
Free My IP Address buttons for your website
IPinfo.exe (Executable)
Tool to show the private IP Address of your PC
IP Privacy Check
IP Privacy Check shows what your IP address and browser reveal
about your identity and tests your anonymity.
IP Checker
IP Checker displays IP, network and domain owners and does
service scan and traceroute.
Third Party IP Tools
Subnet Calculator
IP Subnet Mask Calculator
IP Locator
IP Locator, helps locating a stolen notebook by silently tracking it´s IP address. (commercial product)
GEObytes
If you want your product or service to be listed here, please inquire at info@geotek.de.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Internet Anonymity Services and Privacy Solutions
Anonymisierungs
German language service. Proves the preconception that slick design must not be intuitively usable. Too bad. Supports SSL
Anonymizer.com
One of the oldest and most well known commercial anonymous HTTP proxy provider with free services and SSL support. Somewhat obtrusive appearance. No software installation required.
Be hidden
Free traffic-limited HTTP proxy. Encrypts URLs, which don´t even show up in the browser history.
Browzar
If your sole intention is to leave no traces on the Windows PC used for browsing the web, this is a very clever solution. Browzar is a complete webbrowser packed into a single executable file. It´s extremely small footprint of 217 KByte allows it even to be downloaded on demand or to be executed directly from a network drive. By internally using the IE engine it renders most webpages correctly, including those using ActiveX, Java or Flash. Upon termination, all cookies, autocomplete data, cache, history and other files are deleted automatically.
CallingHome
Open Source tool to make and maintain a stable SSH connection via a SSH server to any PC located behind a firewall. This secure connection may then be used to effectively tunnel any TCP/IP port traffic through firewalls and NAT routers. Too bad that It requires MS.Net Framework.
Cloak
HTTP proxy provider, less commercially oriented than others sites and has SSL support. Free service is somewhat slow. No software installation required.
cotse.net
Paid privacy service with anonymous email, multiple domains, PGP encryption, spam protection and SSH tunnelling for port based traffic. The absense of exaggerated claims in combination with thorough information about their services makes cotse stand out clearly from the crowd.
findnot.com
Hastily cobbled website that tries to scare people by showing them how their current ip address is precisely traceable to a specific geographic location. Our location (Berlin, Germany) was consistently located either in China ("close to Bejing") or "close to Holliwood, Florida, United States". Very convincing, indeed.
Guardster
Anonymizing HTTP proxy service with toolbar for controlled blocking of cookies, images, ads and scripts. SSL is available in paid subscription service. Free service is heavily clustered with ads.
HTTPort
Free Client and Server program to transport any TCP port traffic (not just web browsing) encrypted over a HTTP tunnel. HTTPort works quite well but shows unnecessary large latency times. With public servers it is almost unusable due to their slowness. This interesting concept is not appropriate for beginners.
http-Tunnel
Commercial software solution to tunnel traffic from SOCKS compatible applications (such as web browsers) through company firewalls and http proxies. No information about encryption available.
Hujico tip
Free ad-financed HTTP proxy with URL scrambling.
iPrive.com
Commercial site with a broad range of privacy solutions
JAP
One of the best privacy software solutions available, even though development is not yet quite finished. The service is still free at the moment, but operation is not very fast and lacks availability. They are working on a promising concept with multiple proxies (mixes). Servers are located in Germany. You should definitely try this out.
MegaProxy
Commercial HTTP proxy provider with fast, free SSL access. Disables the browser URL-Window in order to avoid browsing inadvertently unsecured. No software installation required.
Metropipe Tunneler
Commercial service with promising concept and high ethical claim. We hope to have a review shortly.
Mezzy
Free ad-financed anonymous search and surf service. Supports HTTP and FTP only and transfers the visited page URL in clear text. After browsing the first page, there is no way to enter another URL.
Mr. Privacy
Free ad-financed HTTP proxy leaving URLs visible
Proxify
Paid HTTP proxy service. A large Info area allows for easy selection of security filters, such as Java and ad blocking, but eats up lots of desktop viewing space. Supports SSL; no software installation required.
SaferSurf.com
Fully commercial service with aggressive marketing, targeting the technically less inclined. Offers broad range of privacy solutions; multilingual.
Surfeasy
Surprisingly fast, free anonymizing service. Scrambles URLs and stands out in replacing / masking all browser information in ACCEPT and USER_AGENT strings.
TheStrongestLinks
New US based Web Anonymizer with URL scrambling and interesting features such as Meta, Referer and Title handling features.
Tor
Very well documented open source toolkit for anoymizing arbitrary IP traffic while traversing the internet. Uses a mechanism called “Onion Routing” where TCP streams are broken up and their packets being sent through a random network of Tor-Servers, similar to the “Mix”-concept of JAP. For anonymous surfing you must install additional proxy software, such as Privoxy. The effective throughput is surprisingly high.
Steganos Internet Anonym Pro
Commercial client software that continuously switches between a number of external proxy servers located all over the world. Steganos has severe security deficits. Test report (German)
thevirtualbrowser
Free anonymizing service. Scrambles URLs and masks browser information. Features easy menu bar configuration and offers a Mozilla Firefox Extension.
Ultimate Anonymity
Commercial anonymity service located in Florida, promising life-time access for a small one-time fee.
Unipeak
Very fast, free Web-Anonymizer with URL-encryption. It is not yet rock-stable but looks promising.
your-freedom
Your Freedom is a complete http-ssl-tunnel solution based on a proprietary java-based client sortware. Free services are speed-limited to 64kb/s, more bandwidth is available at a reasonable charge. Your Freedom supports http, https, socks and a unique and easily configurable port forwarding mechanism. IP traffic is completely ssl-encrypted and routed over a network of automatically changing proprietary proxies. We rate speed, usabilty, functionality and speed as excellent.
German language service. Proves the preconception that slick design must not be intuitively usable. Too bad. Supports SSL
Anonymizer.com
One of the oldest and most well known commercial anonymous HTTP proxy provider with free services and SSL support. Somewhat obtrusive appearance. No software installation required.
Be hidden
Free traffic-limited HTTP proxy. Encrypts URLs, which don´t even show up in the browser history.
Browzar
If your sole intention is to leave no traces on the Windows PC used for browsing the web, this is a very clever solution. Browzar is a complete webbrowser packed into a single executable file. It´s extremely small footprint of 217 KByte allows it even to be downloaded on demand or to be executed directly from a network drive. By internally using the IE engine it renders most webpages correctly, including those using ActiveX, Java or Flash. Upon termination, all cookies, autocomplete data, cache, history and other files are deleted automatically.
CallingHome
Open Source tool to make and maintain a stable SSH connection via a SSH server to any PC located behind a firewall. This secure connection may then be used to effectively tunnel any TCP/IP port traffic through firewalls and NAT routers. Too bad that It requires MS.Net Framework.
Cloak
HTTP proxy provider, less commercially oriented than others sites and has SSL support. Free service is somewhat slow. No software installation required.
cotse.net
Paid privacy service with anonymous email, multiple domains, PGP encryption, spam protection and SSH tunnelling for port based traffic. The absense of exaggerated claims in combination with thorough information about their services makes cotse stand out clearly from the crowd.
findnot.com
Hastily cobbled website that tries to scare people by showing them how their current ip address is precisely traceable to a specific geographic location. Our location (Berlin, Germany) was consistently located either in China ("close to Bejing") or "close to Holliwood, Florida, United States". Very convincing, indeed.
Guardster
Anonymizing HTTP proxy service with toolbar for controlled blocking of cookies, images, ads and scripts. SSL is available in paid subscription service. Free service is heavily clustered with ads.
HTTPort
Free Client and Server program to transport any TCP port traffic (not just web browsing) encrypted over a HTTP tunnel. HTTPort works quite well but shows unnecessary large latency times. With public servers it is almost unusable due to their slowness. This interesting concept is not appropriate for beginners.
http-Tunnel
Commercial software solution to tunnel traffic from SOCKS compatible applications (such as web browsers) through company firewalls and http proxies. No information about encryption available.
Hujico tip
Free ad-financed HTTP proxy with URL scrambling.
iPrive.com
Commercial site with a broad range of privacy solutions
JAP
One of the best privacy software solutions available, even though development is not yet quite finished. The service is still free at the moment, but operation is not very fast and lacks availability. They are working on a promising concept with multiple proxies (mixes). Servers are located in Germany. You should definitely try this out.
MegaProxy
Commercial HTTP proxy provider with fast, free SSL access. Disables the browser URL-Window in order to avoid browsing inadvertently unsecured. No software installation required.
Metropipe Tunneler
Commercial service with promising concept and high ethical claim. We hope to have a review shortly.
Mezzy
Free ad-financed anonymous search and surf service. Supports HTTP and FTP only and transfers the visited page URL in clear text. After browsing the first page, there is no way to enter another URL.
Mr. Privacy
Free ad-financed HTTP proxy leaving URLs visible
Proxify
Paid HTTP proxy service. A large Info area allows for easy selection of security filters, such as Java and ad blocking, but eats up lots of desktop viewing space. Supports SSL; no software installation required.
SaferSurf.com
Fully commercial service with aggressive marketing, targeting the technically less inclined. Offers broad range of privacy solutions; multilingual.
Surfeasy
Surprisingly fast, free anonymizing service. Scrambles URLs and stands out in replacing / masking all browser information in ACCEPT and USER_AGENT strings.
TheStrongestLinks
New US based Web Anonymizer with URL scrambling and interesting features such as Meta, Referer and Title handling features.
Tor
Very well documented open source toolkit for anoymizing arbitrary IP traffic while traversing the internet. Uses a mechanism called “Onion Routing” where TCP streams are broken up and their packets being sent through a random network of Tor-Servers, similar to the “Mix”-concept of JAP. For anonymous surfing you must install additional proxy software, such as Privoxy. The effective throughput is surprisingly high.
Steganos Internet Anonym Pro
Commercial client software that continuously switches between a number of external proxy servers located all over the world. Steganos has severe security deficits. Test report (German)
thevirtualbrowser
Free anonymizing service. Scrambles URLs and masks browser information. Features easy menu bar configuration and offers a Mozilla Firefox Extension.
Ultimate Anonymity
Commercial anonymity service located in Florida, promising life-time access for a small one-time fee.
Unipeak
Very fast, free Web-Anonymizer with URL-encryption. It is not yet rock-stable but looks promising.
your-freedom
Your Freedom is a complete http-ssl-tunnel solution based on a proprietary java-based client sortware. Free services are speed-limited to 64kb/s, more bandwidth is available at a reasonable charge. Your Freedom supports http, https, socks and a unique and easily configurable port forwarding mechanism. IP traffic is completely ssl-encrypted and routed over a network of automatically changing proprietary proxies. We rate speed, usabilty, functionality and speed as excellent.
Anonymous Surfing
There is no cause for paranoia, but most IT security professionals will agree that using the internet has serious security and privacy deficits.
If you point your web browser to a website or use any internet related-program, such as Mail, FTP, p2p filesharing services or an MP3 media player, a server at the other end uses your IP address in order to send you the information you requested. It wouldn’t make sense to fake your IP address because then you would never get any reply from the internet. All internet servers and services run some sort of logging, identifying your IP address, the exact access time and your complete surf history at their site. Companies use these log files for statistical, marketing, technical or legal purposes . While accessing the internet at work, your company’s proxy server and firewall will most likely also trace everything you do. Finally, your computer itself also keeps track of many operations.
Even if you were able to control your PC, proxy and firewall completely, you would still never have control over the internet servers you visit. This means, strictly speaking, that there is no such thing as anonymous surfing. All you can do is making it harder to find you. But before you go out and download tons of privacy software packages, consider at least four things:
* Running privacy tools on your computer at work without approval of the IT department is against the rules and can get you fired.
* No matter how much technical knowledge you may have, there is always someone out there who is smarter than you, so don´t become careless.
* Think of the high value of the Human Right to Privacy. Don´t abuse it for unethical purposes.
* Is it really worth the money and effort? Added security comes at a price: the more software you install, the more problems will arise; some sites may need time consuming tweaking and some solutions are really slooooow...
Thus forewarned, let´s take a look at some techniques to hide your web traffic from suspicious eyes.
During a web browsing session, most data is transferred using the HTTP protocol, which is just plain text and not protected in any way. Just replace the “http” string with “https” in your web browser, and all information transferred is encrypted using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. SSL was introduced by Netscape in the early Internet days. It uses the proven RSA public / private key exchange mechanism to encrypt all http traffic between your browser and the destination web server. All modern web browsers support SSL encryption out of the box but many web servers have disabled this protocol because the encryption process would mean additional processing burden for their equipment. Unless you work at the NSA, you can safely assume that neither your employer nor your provider have the resources to break this encryption algorithm.
SSL browser encryption by itself only secures web traffic while travelling through the internet. In order to hide your identity from the destination server, you may use anonymizing HTTP proxy services. With these anonymizers, you are not contacting a destination website directly, but rather use one or more proxy severs, which are located between your computer and the final destination web server.
Anonymizing proxies remove your IP Address (and possibly additional information) from each and every TCP/IP packet and substitutes it, on the fly, with their own IP address. This way, a website visited through an anonymizing proxy has no way of knowing where you are located, because all requests look like originating from the proxy server.
In practice, however, things are not quite that simple:
* If your anonymizer doesn´t block or spoof cookies and you have visited a specific website before without an anonymizer, this site may still be able to identify you.
* Companies offering anonymizing services are promising not to disclose their log files to anyone. But can you really trust them? Law enforcing agencies do have access to these logs, and in these days of terrorist threat, it would be quite unrealistic to assume that secret service agencies would confine themselves from using this excellent surveillance instrument.
* Your employer will definitely notice that you are using anonymizing services, he might even see the websites you are visiting embedded in the URL sent to the proxy or from DNS queries. This will at least put you on a watch list.
If you point your web browser to a website or use any internet related-program, such as Mail, FTP, p2p filesharing services or an MP3 media player, a server at the other end uses your IP address in order to send you the information you requested. It wouldn’t make sense to fake your IP address because then you would never get any reply from the internet. All internet servers and services run some sort of logging, identifying your IP address, the exact access time and your complete surf history at their site. Companies use these log files for statistical, marketing, technical or legal purposes . While accessing the internet at work, your company’s proxy server and firewall will most likely also trace everything you do. Finally, your computer itself also keeps track of many operations.
Even if you were able to control your PC, proxy and firewall completely, you would still never have control over the internet servers you visit. This means, strictly speaking, that there is no such thing as anonymous surfing. All you can do is making it harder to find you. But before you go out and download tons of privacy software packages, consider at least four things:
* Running privacy tools on your computer at work without approval of the IT department is against the rules and can get you fired.
* No matter how much technical knowledge you may have, there is always someone out there who is smarter than you, so don´t become careless.
* Think of the high value of the Human Right to Privacy. Don´t abuse it for unethical purposes.
* Is it really worth the money and effort? Added security comes at a price: the more software you install, the more problems will arise; some sites may need time consuming tweaking and some solutions are really slooooow...
Thus forewarned, let´s take a look at some techniques to hide your web traffic from suspicious eyes.
During a web browsing session, most data is transferred using the HTTP protocol, which is just plain text and not protected in any way. Just replace the “http” string with “https” in your web browser, and all information transferred is encrypted using the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. SSL was introduced by Netscape in the early Internet days. It uses the proven RSA public / private key exchange mechanism to encrypt all http traffic between your browser and the destination web server. All modern web browsers support SSL encryption out of the box but many web servers have disabled this protocol because the encryption process would mean additional processing burden for their equipment. Unless you work at the NSA, you can safely assume that neither your employer nor your provider have the resources to break this encryption algorithm.
SSL browser encryption by itself only secures web traffic while travelling through the internet. In order to hide your identity from the destination server, you may use anonymizing HTTP proxy services. With these anonymizers, you are not contacting a destination website directly, but rather use one or more proxy severs, which are located between your computer and the final destination web server.
Anonymizing proxies remove your IP Address (and possibly additional information) from each and every TCP/IP packet and substitutes it, on the fly, with their own IP address. This way, a website visited through an anonymizing proxy has no way of knowing where you are located, because all requests look like originating from the proxy server.
In practice, however, things are not quite that simple:
* If your anonymizer doesn´t block or spoof cookies and you have visited a specific website before without an anonymizer, this site may still be able to identify you.
* Companies offering anonymizing services are promising not to disclose their log files to anyone. But can you really trust them? Law enforcing agencies do have access to these logs, and in these days of terrorist threat, it would be quite unrealistic to assume that secret service agencies would confine themselves from using this excellent surveillance instrument.
* Your employer will definitely notice that you are using anonymizing services, he might even see the websites you are visiting embedded in the URL sent to the proxy or from DNS queries. This will at least put you on a watch list.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
