Lets start with a little basic explanation of IP addresses and proxy servers. An “IP Address” is the address assigned to you by you by your ISP “Internet Service Provider”. This address identifies you on the internet and is captured by the websites you visit. Therefore, if you are on a website that is illegal, you can easily be tracked down by the authorities. The police would simply subpoena the ISP who was responsible for assigning the IP Address and the ISP would give them your name and address so they could come and lock you up.

A “Proxy Server” or “Web Proxy” is a server or computer system that acts an an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. When you use a proxy, the proxy server is actually the IP Address that gets captured, therefore leaving you undetected. The proxy server makes the request on your behalf and then serves the info back to you through your browser. For example, by using a proxy, it may appear that the person accessing a website is in Spokane, WA when in fact, they are in New York.
There are a few different reasons that people use a proxy, unfortunately, a lot of them are for illegal reasons, which I do not condone. On the other hand, a lot of security conscience people use proxies because they don’t want people monitoring their traffic, browsing habits and physical location. Most proxies these days are web proxies, meaning that they utilize the web as opposed to an intranet style proxy server.

There a few ways to use a proxy, the first is by visiting a website called www.proxy.org where you will see a box on the right hand side with a list of proxies, simply choose a proxy and a new tab will load with an address bar. From that point forward, all of your web surfing should be bounced off the proxy. You may also way to check out the TOR project, a website dedicated to annonimity online. TOR offers their own secure browser, as well as many other options. TOR is simple to use and it’s free.

Another web proxy that I like is www.proxify.com which is free, but has a paid version as well with additional features. Here is a list of features that are included in the paid subscription.

• No ads, delays, or popups - We don’t serve advertising of any kind on proxy pages.
• Faster - Our subscription service provides fast anonymous surfing.
• No file restrictions - Access to over 40 normally restricted file types (such as: mpg, mov, mp3, avi, aiff, zip).
• FTP access - Ability to download files via the FTP protocol.
• More secure - Keep your browsers cache clean with security features like encoded URL’s and blanked page titles.
• Unlisted IP’s - Beat Internet censorship with our secret “subscribers only” site.
• More bandwidth - Ability to download files up to 50 MB (This is over 12 times more than free accounts.).
• No image restrictions - No restriction on number of images which are displayed per page.
• Priority access - Only subscribers can access Proxify during peak usage times.
• Priority support - Our professional staff answers email promptly.
• More accessible - Ability to use one of our many alternative URL’s.
• Very affordable - Just $40 USD for 3 months of access. If you subscribe via PayPal or Credit Card and leave automatic billing enabled, this rate will be “Locked in” even if our price increases.
• And more - Many special features for subscribers only.

If you are like me, tied to a desk all day in an office full of people you are most likely vulnerable to losing your personal info.  If I go to lunch, someone is likely to plop their butt down at my desk and start checking their Facebook, email, Craigslist or some shady site that could likely infect my machine.  This is what I do to keep my info secure.

• This is super nerdy, but highly effective. I created an encrypted volume with Truecrypt, once that volume is mounted there is a PortableApps system inside the encrypted volume that I launch. Once the PortableApps is loaded, I use the integrated Firefox browser, therefore keeping everything I do secure within the encrypted volume. Once I dismount the encrypted volume, the Firefox browser within the PortableApps program is totally secure.
• If I walk away from my computer for a short time and don’t feel like dismounting my encrypted volume, I use a program called ClearLock which quickly locks the screen, but leaves it transparent. This is great solution for quickly locking things down, but won’t keep you secure if someone where to reboot the machine.
• You should definitely use a password manager, do NOT allow the browser to save any passwords. Also, make sure that the browser is set to dump cookies when it closes. Personally, I use LastPass, but there are several other options out there like KeePass, Roboform and PasswordSafe

Have a question? email me at dennis@thecommongeek.com 

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