Looking up your IP address METHOD TWO

- Press START, then select RUN
- In the RUN box, type in CMD and press enter, or click OK
- In the "DOS BOX" that appears, type in: IPCONFIG and press Enter

Your IP address, Subnet Mask and Default Gateway information will be displayed. To close the DOS box, type EXIT, and press enter.

Note: If your PC connects to the internet thru a router or firewall, your internet address may not actually be a true internet address. Most routers and firewalls protect your computer from hackers by assigning a different address to your computer that what appears on the internet. This also allows you to connect multiple computers to the internet via a single internet connection.

Looking up your IP address METHOD ONE

• From the Control Panel go to Network and Internet Connections
• In the Internet Connections window, double-click on Network Connections
• In the Network Connections window, find your network connection. Usually this will be labeled as Local Area Connection for a wired connection, or if you are connecting with a wireless connection, it will be labeled Wireless Network Connection
• Right-Click on your network connection and select Status from the menu that appears
• On the Network Connection Status window, click the Support tab

Your IP address will be listed, as well as the Subnet Mask and default gateway

How Does Hide My IP Work?

When your computer connects to the Internet, it is assigned an IP address by your Internet Service Provider. This IP address is used to keep track of your communications with all websites or any program that connects to the Internet. This is known as a Direct Internet Connection.

When you install and run Hide My IP on your computer, it will modify your Internet Connection Settings, telling your computer to make connections through a Fake IP Relay provided by Hide My IP.

Hide My IP is compatible with the Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, and Opera browsers. All websites visited or E-mails sent using these browsers will show you are connecting from one of our fake IP addresses.

With our High-Speed Premium Service add-on to Hide My IP, you can also hide your IP in many other applications such as Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, AIM, WinAmp, Putty, Trillian, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Mail, and much more.

How do I hide my IP address?

The most common method to hide your IP address is to use a proxy server in one form or another. A proxy server is a computer that offers a computer network service to allow clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests a connection, file, or other resource available on a different server. The proxy provides the resource either by connecting to the specified server or by serving it from a cache. In some cases, the proxy may alter the client's request or the server's response for various purposes. There are several implementations of proxy servers that you can use to hide your IP address (in an attempt to remain anonymous on the internet):

Website Based Proxy Servers
A Website based proxy server is a website that provides a form for you to enter the URL of a website that you wish to anonymously visit. When you submit the form the website proxy server makes a request for the page that you want to visit. The machine usually does not identify itself as a proxy server and does not pass along your IP address in the request for the page. The features of these sites vary (ad blocking, javascript blocking, etc) as does their price. Some are free and some charge. Examples of website proxy services are:

Proxify.com
Browser Configured Proxy Servers

There are also stand along proxy servers that allow for you to configure your browser to route your browser traffic through that machine, which then makes a request for a page on your behalf, and then sends you the results. These are usually used at no cost to the user. Since they are accessible to the public these are often quite slow. Please see instructions for using a proxy server. There are a variety of types of these proxy servers:

Transparent Proxy - This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server and also makes the original IP address available through the http headers. These are generally used for their ability to cache websites and do not effectively provide any anonymity to those who use them. However, the use of a transparent proxy will get you around simple IP bans. They are transparent in the terms that your IP address is exposed, not transparent in the terms that you do not know that you are using it (your system is not specifically configured to use it.) This type of proxy server does not hide your IP address.

Anonymous Proxy - This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server, but does not make the original IP address available. This type of proxy server is detectable, but provides reasonable anonymity for most users. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

Distorting Proxy - This type of proxy server identifies itself as a proxy server, but make an incorrect original IP address available through the http headers. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

High Anonymity Proxy - This type of proxy server does not identify itself as a proxy server and does not make available the original IP address. This type of proxy server will hide your IP address.

Installed Software Proxy Servers

There are a variety of companies and software packages available at either a one time cost or at an annual subscription. These are usually faster and more reliable than the above proxy servers. Some of these services would include:

Anonymizer.com's Anonymous Surfing GhostSurf 2007 Platinum Hide My IP TOR (free)

Anonymous Proxy Risks
In using a proxy server (for example, anonymizing HTTP proxy), all data sent to the service being used (for example, HTTP server in a website) must pass through the proxy server before being sent to the service, mostly in unencrypted form. It is therefore possible, and has been demonstrated, for a malicious proxy server to record everything sent to the proxy: including unencrypted logins and passwords.

By chaining proxies which do not reveal data about the original requester, it is possible to obfuscate activities from the eyes of the user's destination. However, more traces will be left on the intermediate hops, which could be used or offered up to trace the user's activities. If the policies and administrators of these other proxies are unknown, the user may fall victim to a false sense of security just because those details are out of sight and mind.

The bottom line of this is to be wary when using proxy servers, and only use proxy servers of known integrity (e.g., the owner is known and trusted, has a clear privacy policy, etc.), and never use proxy servers of unknown integrity. If there is no choice but to use unknown proxy servers, do not pass any private information (unless it is properly encrypted) through the proxy.

Static DNS Explained

When a computer is connected to the internet with a static IP address, setting up the DNS for the domain is a relatively simple matter of adding an A record to the domain name's zone file. A zone file is just a special text file describing everything about a domain name, where to send email for the domain, and where the website is located for example. The A record is that section of a zone file that specifies the name and the IP address where the appropriate server is located. Here is an example of an A record:

www.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.2

Zone files are stored on a computer called a nameserver. A nameserver is a computer that is designated to answer all questions from other computers about specific domain names.

How is Dynamic DNS Different?

Dynamic DNS works in almost the same manner as DNS resolution to a static IP. Resolution is just a fancy term which means translating a domain name into an IP address so that one computer can find another one on the internet.

The main differences between regular DNS and dynamic DNS are: 1) How often an IP address is updated 2) How the IP is updated 3) And the speed at which the new address is communicated to the rest of the internet. The next section will outline how regular DNS works so you have a basic understanding before we move on to look at these elements of dynamic DNS.

Background Information on DNS, Dynamic DNS and domain names

Initially, the most common way to connect computers to the internet was with a static IP. An IP is the numerical address of a computer connected to the internet. A static IP is an address which does not change. Since the IP address never changed, a static IP made it very easy to point a domain name to a computer on the internet.

However, there are a limited number of static IP addresses in the world and as they became scarce they became harder to obtain and the cost of obtaining a static IP moved out of the range of most internet users. As a result, internet service providers (ISP's) began to use a system of "pooled" IP addresses which could be handed out at random to computers as they connected to the internet. This system became known as dynamic IP addressing. Connect to your ISP and your computer is assigned a random address from the pool. Disconnect from your ISP and the IP address goes back into the pool. Connect your computer again later and it is very unlikely that you will get the same IP address. Some service providers may even change your IP at seemingly random times, and not just when you connect and disconnect.

This makes it a little harder to point a domain name to a computer using a dynamic connection because the address of the computer keeps changing. However, a solution to this problem was developed and is called Dynamic DNS service. Dynamic DNS service uses software installed on your computer to automatically update your DNS settings on easyDNS with the new IP address - which means your domain name stays pointing at your computer even when the address changes.

You ip address

Your IP address is:

What is an IP address?
Every device connected to the public Internet is assigned a unique number known as an Internet Protocol (IP) address. IP addresses consist of four numbers separated by periods (also called a 'dotted-quad') and look something like 127.0.0.1.

Since these numbers are usually assigned to internet service providers within region-based blocks, an IP address can often be used to identify the region or country from which a computer is connecting to the Internet. An IP address can sometimes be used to show the user's general location.

Because the numbers may be tedious to deal with, an IP address may also be assigned to a Host name, which is sometimes easier to remember. Hostnames may be looked up to find IP addresses, and vice-versa. At one time ISPs issued one IP address to each user. These are called static IP addresses. Because there is a limited number of IP addresses and with increased usage of the internet ISPs now issue IP addresses in a dynamic fashion out of a pool of IP addresses (Using DHCP). These are referred to as dynamic IP addresses. This also limits the ability of the user to host websites, mail servers, ftp servers, etc. In addition to users connecting to the internet, with virtual hosting, a single machine can act like multiple machines (with multiple domain names and IP addresses).

Knowing your IP address can allow you (and others you tell) to access services running on your machine such as online games, servers (FTP, web, mail), and remote access utilities (PCAnywhere, GoToMyPC, MS Remote Desktop).