Annonymous browsing software?

I

imacusr

Registered
I would like to be able to browse the net without anyone identifying my IP address/location. OSX has a built-in firewall, but when I ran a test at anomizer.com I was amazed to find that all my information was readily available. :mad:
My question for all you experts :) Do I need a 3rd party firewall or is there an application available that would prevent anyone knowing my IP address/location?
I should mention that I am new to Mac and not very familiar with the technical side of OSX!
Thanks for your help:)

iMacusr
 
I remember several years ago, like 5 or 6, that if you wanted complete anonymity on the internet, you had to subscribe to a server, usually for pay, that absolutely would not pass on any information about you as you surfed the net. With the 9/11 attacks last year, the US government will soon require ALL ISPs TO LOG EVERY SITE you access online. So if you reside within the USA, you can forget surfing anonymously, unless you set up your own server, which I have no idea how to do. Might want to check the XDarwin/UNIX side of Mac OS X here on MacOSX.com and ask a UNIX head there.

One other possibility, if you do find a server that allows you to surf anonymously, it might be in Canada somewhere, or Japan, Europe, etc...definitely won't be in the USA for long, at least legally.

Another possibility: Get Mozilla and use that as your web browser. You can prevent websites from setting and reading cookies. Mozilla, as far I know, offers the most control of all web browsers. See screen shots below.
 
Hi Chemistry-geek!
Thanks so much for your comprehensive reply to my query. I presume you ran the anomizer test using Mozilla as your browser. If so, then it looks like it does a good job. I have another question - some sites won't work if you don't have cookies enabled. Is there a way around that?

Thanks again!

iMacusr
 
certain browsers will let you mask your USER-AGENT string, or restrict cookies and such. this will improve your privacy, but your IP address will still be known. a firewall will also not hide your (registered internetwork) address.

in fact, if you were able to hide your IP address, then you would not be able to use the internet at all! for example: if you don t tell the website your IP address, how will they know whom to send the webpage to? you can never recieve it! it is a built in part of the internet protocol (IP) that you have to provide a return address.

the method for getting around this is to use a proxy. you tell the proxy what webpage you want to download, and it downloads it from the server and sends it to you. of course, in this sccenario, the server knows the IP address of the proxy, so setting up your own proxy sort of defeats the purpose. you need some third party to give you access to their proxy server. such services are rare, but exist. they are legally required to log your IP address, but as long as the FBI doesn t come hunting you, then it is fairly anonymous.

PS
Hey chemistry_geek... look, we have the exact same number of posts!
 
you can actually inject packets onto the internet without putting your return IP address on it. you have to do it yourself, because the OS built in IP protocol stack does not support that. it is easy with a library like LibNet

you can send such packets, but they will not know how to return to you, so its not useful for surfing the internet.

this is called IP spoofing and is considered cracker activity. so now that you know how to do it, don t.
 
Mozilla keeps a record of the internet sites that CAN and CANNOT store cookies on your computer. I have Mozilla set so that any time a website wants to set a cookie, a little window pops down and asks me if I want to allow the cookie to be set. Declining the cookie is usually not a problem, but some sites absolutely require that a cookie be set. In that case, you can delete the cookie after the session, or tell Mozilla that all cookies expire in N days, in which case you set it to N=1, and it's automatically deleted the next day. Mozilla will allow a website to request setting a cookie twice, declining both times with REMEMBER checked flat out refuses to even present you with the question. Mozilla rejects the request every time after that with a "NO". If you want to change your mind, you can go in and edit the database of sites that can and cannot set cookies. The cookies are stored in a text file in your user folder here:

/Users/user_name/Library/Mozilla/Profiles/default/sltgjrb.slt/cookies.txt

Never delete the file outright, just go into Mozilla and edit the file the right way.

There are sites that I allow to set cookies, like MacOSX.com, Slashdot, my bank, and Netscape.com (my personalized startup page). Other sites that require a cookie have the cookie deleted the next day. This way, every time you visit the site, THEY have to set a new cookie. For all intensive purposes, you're a new user to them every time, especially if you have a dial up connection since your ISP assigns a new IP number whenever you connect.

If you're really paranoid, create a user account in Mac OS X with a weird user name like, d5q2Z7X1 or ZXPTJJS and cruise the net with Mozilla under one of those names. Then go to anonmizer.com and see what it tells you. If you get the user name back "d5q2z7x1" or "ZXPTJJS", the only thing they are able to trace is your IP address, which ultimately comes back to YOU with a little digging. They will still get the bogus user name though.
 
Originally posted by chemistry_geek

If you're really paranoid, create a user account in Mac OS X with a weird user name like, d5q2Z7X1 or ZXPTJJS and cruise the net with Mozilla under one of those names. Then go to anonmizer.com and see what it tells you. If you get the user name back "d5q2z7x1" or "ZXPTJJS", the only thing they are able to trace is your IP address, which ultimately comes back to YOU with a little digging. They will still get the bogus user name though.
Click to expand...

i don t think this will benefit you anything. your username on your machine is not sent by your browser, so they can t really trace that. i know lots of paranoid people who don t trust cookies at all, and won t use them. i have heard stories about sites using cookies in invasive ways. if a website doesn t work because you don t want to accept its cookie, and you have no reason to accept a cookie, then be suspicious.

of course, if the website has honest reasons to set a cookie, then its OK.

i noticed that anomizer.com has a free proxy on their website. so if you want to get a webpage without giving away use this website. enter the URL in that box, and they will show you the website, with an extra banner on top.

there is no way to hide your IP address other than a proxy like this.
 
Thanks again to both Chemistry_geek and Lethe for your time in replying to my query. Lethe your reply was also very comprehensive, but unfortunately waaaaaay over my technically challenged head:)
I downloaded Mozilla and configured it as recommended by Chemistry_geek. First of all I would say that Mozilla exceeds IE in performance - much faster and loads the pages fully. Secondly, I was floored to discover that 8 cookies were logged before I could even check my Netscape e-mail! Of course some pages wouldn't open when I denied cookies.
The purpose of browsing anonymously was to try to reduce the amount of spam e-mails I receive daily in my Hotmail account (despite dilligent filtering)!
Oh well - that's an entirely different topic I guess:D

Meantime, thanks to both of you for your help and support.

iMacusr
 
I hope all the info I provided helps. I think Mozilla is a good browser, the best one in my opinion, for my uses. Though it isn't for the average internet user, I read somewhere that it's really intended for geeks. I don't know everything there is to know about it, but it gives me complete control over what webpages can and cannot do - AND I LIKE THAT!!! The most frustrating experience on the web are those pop-up and pop-under adds. Mozilla blocks all that. I too dislike receiving SPAM, I wish Mozilla had some type of filtering parameters, maybe it does and I haven't discovered them yet.
 
Originally posted by imacusr

The purpose of browsing anonymously was to try to reduce the amount of spam e-mails I receive daily in my Hotmail account (despite dilligent filtering)!

iMacusr
Click to expand...

You should know, that a website can't get your email address through a browser unless you put it into an HTML form.
 
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