Your IP address is your identifier on the internet. It can identify which continent, country, state and city you are in. It can also identify who your Internet Service Provider is; which means it’s possible for companies or law enforcement to contact them and request details about you (name, address, phone number & billing details).
Changing your IP address is relatively difficult, but fortunately its pretty easy to trick internet services into thinking you are using a different one.
Using A Proxy
When you use a proxy server, you redirect all your internet traffic through an intermediary server. Depending on the service you use, it’s possible to select the location of the proxy server (country or city).
When you use a proxy server to connect to a website, the website sees the IP address of the proxy server – not your real IP address in your home country & city. This is very useful if you were looking to use services that were geographically restricted to certain countries:
- TV broadcasts
- Lottery websites
- Youtube videos
- Video streaming services
We have a list of free web proxy services here.
Using a VPN
The concept of using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is very similar to using a Proxy server. Your internet traffic is directed through a specific server in a country you choose and websites you visit thereafter see the IP address of the VPN server; not your real home IP address. The important difference in using VPN is that all your data is encrypted and cannot be intercepted / spied on by hackers, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and Governments.
We list a number of VPN service providers here for you to look at and choose.
Whichever you choose; before and after connecting – you need to confirm what IP address you appear to be displaying to servers.