Proxy server

[DeMus]

Hai,

The thing is I want to be invisible on the internet with everything I do: surfing, e-mailing, chatting, everything. With all the eavesdropping you hear about I want to make myself invisible.

Situation here is like this:
I have 3 computers, 2 connected through a switch and 1 directly to a modem-router. How to do that? I looked in the router and see nothing about a proxy. When I install a proxy on one of my computers, the others are not yet hidden. Even my external IP-address is still the same, right? So I am not invisible.

Who can tell me (in detail please) what and how to do this?

Thanks.

[SteveRiley]

Short answer: you can't be invisible. Every datagram that leaves your network must have a source address of some kind, because the other end of the session needs to know where to send return traffic. If you have a router behind a modem, then you're likely using some kind of private address range, like 192.168.0.0/24, for all machines connected to the router. The router's WAN port will receive an IP address assigned by your ISP, and the router is performing network address translation (NAT) to deliver traffic to and from the Internet. On the Internet, all your traffic will appear to originate from the IP address on your WAN port.

No amount of forward proxy layering behind your router will help make you invisible. Ultimately, your traffic will still emerge out the router's WAN port, and will indicate that as its source address. This is simply how the IP protocol works.

The easiest and likely the most effective way to gain some anonymity is to use TOR. Helpfully, you can download a software bundle that includes a customized version of Firefox and other tools that automate connecting to the TOR network. Traffic leaves your computer and finds a TOR entry node close to you. Traffic is then bounced around to many nodes across the world before finally arriving at its destination. Only the TOR entry node knows your public IP. TOR keeps track of each flow's path, so that TOR can deliver reply traffic to you. TOR is reasonably anonymous, does erect significant (but not impossible) barries, and is widely used by privacy advocates. TOR is slow, because of all the intermediate rounting and asymmetric paths. Heavy use of TOR is also likely to arouse suspicion. Just something to think about.

BTW, "anonymous" proxy services like Hide My Ass are mostly bogus and not worth the effort. Don't waste your time.

[DeMus]

Thanks Steve for your answer. This does shine a completely other light on the matter than what I have been reading so far.
I know there are proxy servers on the net through which you can access the website you like to get, but I would like to also be invisible when chatting, e-mailing, etc.
From what I read in your story this seems to be impossible.

Thank you again for your answer.

[SteveRiley]

Glad you understand. I wish the story were different. Alas, total anonymity is not a design goal of the Internet. And, TBH, I think that's a good thing.

[Snowhog]

'Anonymity' maybe what you are really trying to convey here. Invisibility is not possible. Anonymity, "to a degree", is possible, and as Steve pointed out, TOR is the 'du juor' means of establishing 'some degree' of anonymity while on the Internet.

[DeMus]

Yes, what I meant was anonymity instead of invisibility, but still, I guess even that is impossible. I have read about TOR but it seems to me it is making the connection slow because of all the extra traffic which is included between me and the site I want to see.
Plus, again, it is not only for surfing, it is for all I do on the net.

[life0riley]

For the most part the best we can do is make sure we don't stand out in the crowd.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SteveRiley]

For the most part the best we can do is make sure we don't stand out in the crowd.

And excessive use of TOR -- like all the time or even most of the time -- will make you stand out.

[Snowhog]

It is impossible, in the physical world, to leave no trace of movement. Evidence is always left.

Even if an objects movement is 'invisible', it will leave a trace, even if that trace is not 'visible'. Black Holes were first discovered (after having been postulated) not because they could be 'seen', but because of their effect on the environement they exist in.

[SteveRiley]

Even if an objects movement is 'invisible', it will leave a trace, even if that trace is not 'visible'.

ME: [sniff] [sniff] What's that?

CLAYDOH: Dunno, sure smells like a snowhog. Paul's probably wearing his cloaking device again.

ME: Yeah, and I bet he's naked underneath!

BOTH: eeeewwwwwwww

[Snowhog]

hehe.