In general, the IP address is of little relevance to the ordinary Internet user. “Well, certainly, this is some type of thing that the special services can use to figure out where I live” – and this isn’t limited to people who don’t know how to rename a file or folder.
In theory, this is a fair stance for new users because there is no need to know your IP address to discover the weather forecast or read jokes.
However, the World Wide Web provides much more than just messaging and news browsing.
The First Method Is to Use a Paid Anonymizer
We discussed anonymizers in depth in the article, how to hide ip address from the administrator of the site you visited. As a result, while changing your IP address, several premium anonymizers allow you to pick IP addresses from another country. As a result, you can utilize a paid anonymizer to modify your “place of residence.”
Method 2: Use an Anonymous Proxy Server
An anonymous proxy server may be used to modify your location, i.e. to substitute your real IP address with the IP address of the nation you require. There are no distinct advantages to utilizing an anonymous proxy server over an anonymizer; nevertheless, if you want to change your IP address to that of another country for free, a free proxy server is preferable to a paid anonymizer.
What Exactly Is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server is a server that caches information and limits Internet access. Local area network system administrators and Internet service providers both set up proxy servers.
An anonymous proxy server is either a poorly set up ordinary proxy server, or a public open proxy server that explicitly allows access to everyone.
If you enter the proxy server’s IP address into the browser settings, the browser will access websites on the Internet through this proxy server rather than directly, therefore IP addresses will be recorded in the logs of the websites you visit when using the proxy server.
It will take you no more than 5 minutes to enter the IP address in the browser settings. You may learn how to accomplish this in detail by reading the article “Guidelines for configuring a browser to work with an anonymous proxy server in multiple browsers.”
To obtain the URLs of websites that have lists of IP addresses of active proxy servers, put “free proxy” or “proxy server” into the Google search box, and you will be provided with a plethora of websites that include lists of IP addresses. Proxy server addresses and browser configuration instructions.
Along with the IP address, the access port is usually included in the list, separated by a colon. When setting the browser, the access port must be supplied together with the IP address.
Proxy Server Advantages and Downsides
Proxy servers have the same downsides as anonymizers (poor speed and low level of anonymity), but you don’t have to watch adverts while using a proxy server, and you can also select which country the proxy IP address belongs to -server for free.
Separately, it is worth noting that you will most likely need to change proxy servers due to their instability, because, as previously stated, some proxies are poorly configured regular ones, and when the server administrator discovers that his proxy server is being used publicly as an anonymous user, he closes access to his server and you can no longer use his IP address.
Method Three: Distributed Tor Network
The Tor Distributed Network is a network of computers spread all over the world. When using the Tor network, each user permits to use their computer to encrypt and anonymize traffic.
Using Tor is very simple – just install the Tor browser on your PC and access the Internet only from this browser. At the same time, you become anonymous for free! But, as you know, free cheese is only in a mousetrap, and the Tor network has its drawbacks:
Very slow speed (it is impossible to watch videos and download large files, it is better to use a VPN).
Tor gets hacked from time to time.
It is difficult to set up an IP address change for a specific country.
To get the IP address of the desired country, you can install the Tor browser on your computer (or on a flash drive), connect to the Tor network and change the chain of computers through which the required site is accessed until you get the output The IP address of the desired country.
There is another way – to limit the choice of exit nodes in the settings of the Tor program. How to do all this is described in the article “How to be completely anonymous and encrypt all transmitted information?”.
Both methods are quite complicated, but not so much. You can figure it out in 10 minutes!
