Imagine you want to mail a letter to a friend with whom you’ve been out of touch for some time. To reach her, you’ll first need to find out where she lives.

Communication on the Internet works pretty much the same way — you need to somehow locate the other person’s device to communicate with them. 

The Internet Protocol (IP) address makes this possible.

Each device connected to the internet (or a local network) has a unique IP address, which tells other devices of its virtual location. The IP address makes it possible for devices connected on a network to send and receive data packets (or in simple words, exchange information with each other).

Now, you might be thinking:

“All this looks harmless. Why, then, should I worry about things like how to hide my IP address.”

Well, in the perfect world you wouldn’t need to — just like you wouldn’t worry about burglary in that ideal world.

Still, you do lock your house keep the bad guys out. In the similar vein, hiding your IP address gives you greater security (and privacy) while browsing the internet.

Otherwise, hackers can discover your general geographical location, such as your city, state and ZIP code, as well as the name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP), from just your IP address.

Creepy, isn’t it? (Yup, those innocuous digits can expose details you might want to keep private!)

Furthermore, if they know your IP address, hackers can use it to potentially gain access to your computer. If, God forbid, that happens, then hackers can pounce on the private information stored on your device, and use that information to do all kinds of bad things — hijacking your usernames and passwords, using and abusing your Social Security Number, stealing your money, and selling your information to others, to name a few.

Sounds scary — right?

Like I said, it is a good idea to mask your IP address. Apart from minimizing the chance of data breach, hiding your IP address help:

• Negate any bans of IP addresses. You can access content that is geographically blocked in your location — for example, to watch your favorite Netflix series in a foreign country.
• Get past censorship. For example, you can access websites that are blocked in your country.
• Keep your search-engine history private. Search engines, like Google, keep a record of your search history. This won’t be possible if you hide your IP address.
• Hide your internet activity from your ISP. Did you know your ISP provider can keep track of your browsing history and potentially sell it to advertisers? If knowing this makes you uneasy, masking your IP address is the way to go.

3 ways to hide your IP address

There are different ways to keep your IP under wraps, each with its own unique benefits and disadvantages.

1. Use a VPN service

This is by far the best and the easiest way to browse the net anonymously. But how does a VPN service help you hide IP address online, you may wonder?

Well, here’s an example to understand this better.

Imagine you want to purchase a few bottles of beer, but are not old enough to legally buy alcohol. So you hand over the money to an older friend, who gets the beer for you. The shop owner thinks your friend is the buyer — not you. 

Like your friend, a VPN service can secretly lend you a helping hand.

When you use a VPN service, it contacts the site on your behalf and gains access. Next, it forwards the access details to you (again, in secret) and voila — you can now access the restricted content.

The website thinks (just like the store owner) it is dealing with someone else and not you.

All communication between you and your VPN server is encrypted. This makes it the most secure and easiest way to hide your IP address.

But mind you, this is the case only when you use a premium VPN solution.

Because…

Free VPN solutions offer limited features or, worse, are malicious.

Examples of a reliable VPN service include, among others, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Perfect Privacy.

   2. Opt for a web proxy server

This is an intermediary server, which redirects your web traffic and prevents the websites you visit from knowing your real IP address.

For example, let’s say you want to open Google’s homepage.

When you don’t use a proxy, the request goes to your ISP provider. The latter connects you to Google.com — and in the process also reveals your IP address.

When you use a proxy server, your request is rerouted. That is, the request first goes to your ISP. From there, however, it’s sent to the proxy. The latter assigns your device a ghost IP and then directs you to the destination.

Google.com thinks the request is from someone else, not you.

However, a proxy server is not a perfect option for keeping online activity under wraps. Even though it doesn’t reveal you IP address to the websites you visit, it can share the information with someone else. 

Anyone with access to your data can find out what you’re doing online. A web proxy server neither encrypts your data, nor does it erase any recognizable markers other than your IP address.

3. Take advantage of the Tor Browser

Tor stands for The Onion Router. It’s a free piece of software that provides anonymity and privacy every time you browse the net. It protects you by routing your data through a series of voluntarily-run servers (called nodes) and wrapping it in multiple layers of encryption.

If you’re looking for a solution to hide your IP address for free, Tor is a great option. There are thousands of nodes located all over the world. This makes it extremely difficult for someone to locate your IP address.

Installing Tor and using it is easy. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. Just pick the browser bundle that’s compatible with your OS and install it.

But before you install Tor, understand that the Tor browser is significantly slower compared to other web browsers. In addition, some countries have blocked or restricted Tor. If you live in such a country and are found to be using Tor, you may get into trouble. Furthermore, many sites don’t run properly on Tor, since it disables JavaScript and several other technologies needed to smoothly run these sites. Finally, you may have difficulty in logging into sites that check location like Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

Wrapping Up

It’s always better if you can keep the information about your IP address to yourself. It tells more about you than you think — and others can exploit this information. Concealing your IP address also offer some additional advantages, such as giving you access to geo-restricted sites and preventing others from finding your online activity.

There are many ways how one can choose to hide their IP address. Those include VPN services, proxies, and, of course the controversial Tor network.  

Each method has its own pros and cons. But all things considered, a paid VPN service offers the most comprehensive digital protection. Plus, it offers some added benefits.

Alright, so that’s that about hiding your IP address. If you find this article useful, like and share it so that others can safely browse the internet.

Before singing off for the day, I’ll leave you with a pro tip to improve PC performance: Update your device drivers regularly. How to do that, you may ask? Well, the easiest method is to use a reliable driver update software, like Driver Updater.