Trace Any IP Address Location

How to Trace the IP Address Back to the Source?

In fact, tracing an IP address back to its location is a lot simpler than what many people imagine. There exists many online tools using which you can accomplish this job. One of my favorite site is IP2Location.com.

Just go to http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx and enter the IP address that you want to trace in the dialog box and click on “Find Location”‘. With just a click of a button you can find the following information for any given IP address:

• Country in which the IP is located
  
  
• City to which the IP address belongs to
  
  
• Latitude/Longitude of the IP’s location
  
  
• Zip Code of the region to which the IP belongs to
  
  
• Time Zone associated with the IP
  
  
• Name of the ISP to which the IP address belong to
  
  
• Internet Speed of the computer associated with the IP
  
  
• Weather Station associated with the region of the IP
  
  
• Domain name associated with the IP address

A sample snapshot of the results from ip2location.com is given below:

You can also visually trace route any IP address back to its location. For this, just visit http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/visual-tracert/ and enter the IP you want to trace in the dialog box and hit the “Proxy Trace” button. Wait for few seconds and the visual trace route tool displays the path Internet packets traverse to reach a specified destination. Hope this helps. Please pass you comments.

Ways To Hide IP Address Online

Every computer on the Internet has a unique IP address allotted to it which makes it possible to trace it back to its exact location. Even though the concept of Internet Protocol address has been designed for its transparency and traceability, in some cases this questions the privacy of the Internet user where one would not like to reveal his/her identity to the outside world. Well, if you are one such person who is in search of ways to hide your IP address online, then you are at the right place. In this post, I will discuss some of the easy and popular ways to hide your IP address, so that your identity and privacy is kept safe.

One of the most popular and easy ways to hide your IP address online is to use a proxy server. In simple words, a proxy server is any server that will act as an intermediary between your computer and the Internet. Instead of communicating directly with the websites or Internet resources, here you communicate with the proxy server which then forwards all your requests to the remote server so as to establish a back and forth communication between your computer and the Internet. So, whenever you are hiding behind a proxy, the Internet or the websites you visit will only see the IP address of the proxy server, so that your real IP address is kept hidden. For more information on proxy servers, you may refer my earlier post on what is a proxy server and how it works?

Types of Web Proxies

Here is a list of different types of web proxies that you can try:

Website Based Proxy Servers:

This is the simplest of all methods. There are many websites on the Internet that provide free and paid proxy service for the users without having to install any piece of software program on their computer. The following are some of the popular websites that offer proxy service:

• www.hidemyass.com
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• www.newipnow.com
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• anonymouse.org
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• proxify.com
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• smarthide.com

The above websites provide a field to enter the URL of the target website that you want to visit anonymously. Once you submit, they will establish a connection with the target site and presents you back with the intended page that you are trying to browse. The downside of using these free services is that, some of them will not offer a secured connection (SSL) and you will often be presented with annoying ads and pop-ups during the course of your browsing. However, you can avoid these by becoming a paid user.

Browser Configured Proxy Servers:

There are hundreds of freely available open proxies that can be found on the Internet. You can obtain the IP address of one of those freely available proxy servers and configure your browser to start using them. However, as they are openly available to public, most of them are either bottlenecked or perform too slow on normal conditions.

Program Based Proxy Servers:

A program based proxy server requires you to install a program on your computer and configure its settings. These provide you with an option to start hiding your IP address with just a click of a button. They automatically connect your computer to a private high speed anonymous proxy server to provide best performance. You also have the option to choose proxies based on location such as countries. The advantage of using this type of proxy is that, it is not limited to a single browser. That means, your computer’s entire web traffic is routed through the proxy, there by guaranteeing you with a highest level of privacy.

Most of these programs come with a free trial where you are required to pay once the trial period expires. The following are some of the popular program based web proxies:

• Hide My IP
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• Hide IP NG

VPN Services:

VPN services provide reliable ways not only to hide your IP address but also to protect your data and identity over the Internet. Here are a few examples of VPN services that you can try:

• Hide My Ass VPN
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• VyprVPN

Tips to Maintain A Virus Free Computer

Is your computer infected with virus? Do you often get mysterious error messages? Well, this is a common problem faced by almost all the computer users across the globe.

Even though some of them are harmless, they do have the ability to do a number of nasty things up to and including damaging or erasing sensitive data from your computer. However, there are ways to keep viruses and other malware away from your computer.

Ways to Keep Your Computer Virus Free:

Here are the 12 tips to maintain a virus free computer:

1. Email is one of the common ways by which your computer can catch a virus. So, it is always recommended to stay away from SPAM. Open only those emails that has its origin from a trusted source such as those which comes from your contact list.
   If you are using your own private email host (other than Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.) then it is highly recommended that you use a good spam filter. And finally NEVER click on any links in the emails that comes from untrusted sources.
2. USB thumb/pen drives is another common way by which viruses spread rapidly. So, it is always a good habit to perform a virus scan before copying any data onto your computer. NEVER double-click the pen drive to open it. Instead right-click on it and select the option “open”. This is the safe way to open a pen drive.
3. Be careful about using MS Outlook. Outlook is more susceptible to worms than other e-mail programs, unless you have an efficient antivirus programs running. Use Pegasus or Thunderbird (by Mozilla), or a web-based program such as Hotmail or Yahoo (In Firefox).
4. As we all know, Internet is the main source of all malicious programs including viruses, worms, trojans etc. In fact, Internet contributes to virus infection by up to 80 percent. So, here are the tips for safe surfing habits so that you can ward off virus infection up to the maximum possible extent.
   • Do not click on pop-up windows that announce a sudden disaster in your city or announce that you’ve won an hourly prize. They are the ways to mislead Internet users and you should never trust them.
   • You can also use a pop-up blocker to automatically block those pop-ups.
5. Most of us use search engines like Google to find what we are looking for. It is quite obvious for a malicious website to get listed in the search results. So, in order to avoid visiting those untrusted malicious websites, you can download and install the AVG LinkScanner which is a freeware. This tool can become very handy and will help you to stay away from those malicious websites.
6. Install a good antivirus software and keep it updated. Also perform full system scan periodically. It is highly recommended that you turn on the automatic update feature. This is the most essential task to protect your PC from viruses. If PC security is your first option then it is recommended that you go for a shareware antivirus software rather than using the freeware stuffs.
   Most of the antivirus programs offer the auto-protect feature that provides real-time security for your PC. Make sure that this feature is turned on.
7. In addition to an antivirus, it is worthwhile to spend a few bucks on a good anti-spyware program. This can provide extra security for your computer.
8. Never open any email attachments that come from untrusted sources. If it is a picture, text or sound file (these attachments end in the extensions .txt, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .mp3, .htm, .html, and .avi), you are probably safe, but still perform a virus scan before opening them.
9. Do not use disks that other people gave you, even from work. The disk could be infected with a virus. Of course, you can run a virus scan on it first to check it out.
10. Set up your Windows update to automatically download patches and upgrades. This will allow your computer to automatically download any updates to both the operating system and Internet Explorer. These updates fix security holes in both pieces of software.
11. While you download files from untrusted websites/sources such as torrents, warez etc. make sure that you run a virus scan before executing them.
12. And finally it is recommended not to visit those websites that feature illegal/unwanted stuffs such as cracks, serials, warez etc. as they contribute much in spreading of virus and other malicious programs.