The Wonderful World of Anonymous Surfing

When you talk about anonymous surfing, proxies or anything that obscures your IP address - people tend to think you're up to no good. My wife looks at me suspiciously, my friends wonder what I'm up to and I dread to think what my parents would think if I attempted to explain the concept of IP cloaking.

Now I know there are always going to be people who seek to obscure their identity for nefarious schemes and motives but there's millions of other people who just want some privacy, some safety or simply are not overly happy with their Governments want to record their every move online (on the off chance that you might be up to no good)

Almost all anonymous surfing relies in some way on the ubiquitous proxy servers. However there is sometimes a real perception that a proxy server means you are anonymous and can surf in privacy, which is far from the truth.

For illustration let me just make this point, if you are lucky enough to have internet access at work or school then your surfing will almost certainly be directed through a proxy server.

Why does my employer direct me through a proxy server?

The reason is simple, it's because he can then log everything you do, intercept, monitor and control. If Joe Smith in supplies spends his time surfing dating sites on company time, he'd better hope that his boss doesn't check the logs on the proxy server as it will all be listed there.

And that's the problem a proxy server may obscure your identity to some extent but unless the logs are deleted instantly, then it also is a complete list of everything you do online. Professional solutions that run these proxies for anonymous surfing know this - and if they are worth using then they delete the logs instantly. If they don't just remember the risks.

Anyway the reason for this post is not about negativity, anonymous surfing has real positive uses.

Here's just a selection of real life uses for surfing anonymously in real life.

• Obviously hiding your IP address from Web Sites you visit


• Banned from a forum? Use a proxy to sign on again and join in again


• All over the world - social sites like Facebook are banned - anonymous surfing allows you to view and participate


• Blocked from Online gambling in USA? Anonymous surfing allows you to gamble wherever you like


• Love the BBC IPlayer, but blocked because outside the UK, no problem surf from a UK proxy


• Blocked from sites like Hulu, ABC or NBC because outside the states - fast US Proxies can help


• Want to use search engines with a different perspective - surf via proxy for different results


• Happy that your ISP logs everything you do? Anonymous surfing will keep your privacy

That's a very small selection, it could be argued that the ability of surfing the internet anonymously actually protects free speech. Many countries control and censor a huge amount of what their citizens do online. Bloggers in many countries have been jailed purely for speaking their mind - watch the internet news it happens every day - here's some Iranian bloggers jailed, scarey huh!!!

Well I hope I've just mentioned a few benefits of anonymous surfing online. There really are plenty, if you want to read about the software I use you can read about it here - Identity Cloaker Review, if you explore the rest of my blog you'll find loads more information as well.

Freedom of Speech Censorship

It is a basic human right to have the freedom of speech. Everyone on the planet should have both the right and the opportunity to express themselves and their opinion via through free speech. When this is taken away, an international law is being broken.

But let’s face it. At times we are not free to speak our minds. There are limitations that society puts on us and we are censored by the government on occasions also.

In society we self censor by considering what are generally acceptable and what will be approved of. But the whole point of freedom of speech is that regardless of the speakers view point; they have the opportunity to express it without being prevented in any way.

There are certain laws in place in some countries that limit the freedom of speech. One such law is “The Hate Speech” or the “Harm Principle” which decrees that anyone who writes a speech to incite hate or is purposefully to harm will be censored.

These cover many issues and although I may not agree with everyone’s view point, they should have the right to express it and I should have the right to express my feeling on their speech. Surly this is the core principle of free speech?

Without the freedom of speech act, we would not have the world we live in today. Martin Luther King delivered a speech that inspired millions and is still just as powerful today. In the society that Martin Luther King lived in, his speech was highly controversial and many people would not agree with it. Yet without it, would we really be as enriched as we are today? No, I can honestly say that that is not the case. Should Martin Luther King have been prevented from delivering this piece of history?



When contemplating the Freedom of Speech Act, we have to realise that public opinion alters and to prevent someone from delivering their viewpoint to the public could be in fact prevent some insight into a future world or opinion.

Many people, from teachers to politicians dictate what is right and acceptable to be spoken; I myself am guilty of placing restrictions on speech. But one has to consider why. I believe that the reason behind this is fear.

As a society we are now feared of not agreeing with the general census. We are growing afraid of having our own opinions and saying something that could be offensive to others. This is not what a democracy and free speech stands for.

Next time you chastise a child for saying they don’t like something, or when your friend begins a rant about how communism would be an ideal state; before you frown and tell them to shut up, consider the freedom of speech censorship act and all it has achieved so far.

"From our Guest blogger - Kate from England"

Iran's Internet Protesters

Since the recent presidential election there have been a number of protests throughout Iran. Many of these protesters have clashed violently with the police.

As there is such an intense censorship within the country itself, many of the protesters are now using the internet to get there views and opinions across.

Thanks to the popular social networking sites, Iran’s protesters can now build and follow through with their campaign thanks to the World Wide Web.

These online social networking sites which are being used by Iran’s protesters are gaining in popularity. Not only with the protesters, as to a certain degree it allows the protesters an amount of anonymity, but also by the rest of the world.

The world’s media is now continually checking these social networking sites to be kept to date with the latest happenings and a country which is not friendly towards journalist. Through this we are gaining an insight into the life and challenges that the Iranian people are currently facing.

Are Iran's Internet Protesters a Threat?

Internet protesting is becoming a real concern for the Iranian government. In such a heavily censored country, any would be protesters are heading underground to avoid the quick and harsh reprimands for speaking out against the regime.
Don't look like police do they ?
The internet has been the key to this. In such a heavily monitored and censored environment, the internet has become the light at the end of a very dark and oppressive tunnel for many of these protesters.

Iran is within the top 10 countries for blogging. Blogging and instant messenger although being popular with the younger generation within the west, it is not frequently used as form of communication that is classed as serious, let alone political.

The reason why so many protesters are using the internet and instant messenger is because it allows an amount of freedom that traditional forms of protest do not.

Although there has been a surge in internet protesters in Iran, it is not without its dangers.

Currently the updates, posted by some of the Iranian protesters on one of the current favourites is Twitter, is gaining an enormous amount of media attention.

A warning has been sent to the media, requesting that the bloggers are left unnamed due to the penalties they will face in Iran for their actions.

The punishment for protesting and speaking out against the Iranian government can vary. For some a fine is all they get, although this fine is usually exceptionally high. Others face lengthy spells in dismal prisons.

The fear that the brutality that the police treat protesters with is building, meaning that many internet protesters are choosing to remain silent for the time being.

The internet has been the key for many things within our modern life, and now it is being used to help give a voice to those who are being silenced. Thanks to the bravery of the internet protesters, both sides of the issues within Iran are now being aired.

{Guest Post by Kate from England}

Is it Hard to Find an Open Proxy ?

If you've ever tried looking for open proxies on the internet, you may be amazed at how many are out there. It doesn't take long to find anonymous proxies on the internet, but I'm afraid they will usually be rather disappointing.

How many Proxies are around ?

There are actually hundreds of new proxies appearing every hour. They exist for a variety of reasons, mistakes, misconfiguration and deliberate proxies both benign and those set up for identity theft and to transfer viruses.

You may have seen the many lists of open proxies available on the internet - one of the oldest is at http://www.samair.ru/proxy/ that has a huge list of proxies which are updated every day. You'll see from the numbers that there is no shortage of both proxies and potential users. Unfortunately when anything in demand appears for free on the internet, the inevitable usually happens, the free proxies get overloaded and are virtually unusable a few hours after appearing on one of these lists.

There are lots of definitions of the different types of proxies - people concerned with security and privacy will usually be attracted to the secure or elite proxies. I would first like to clarify this - it is highly unlikely you'll ever find a secure free proxy and I'll tell you why?

Definition of Secure Anonymous Proxies

Well it will usually be something like ensuring the proxy server doesn't forward the HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR header when sending and receiving data. This means that the proxy won't forward your IP address when it relays information. With this header enabled the web server will receive both yours and the proxies IP address.

This of course offers some security but lets think about this situation. These servers are found on the internet generally by scanning for open ports. All you have to do is scan address ranges for services on the following ports 23, 1080, 80, 8080 and look for open proxies such as socks 4 and 5 or wingate proxies. These could be anywhere on client PCs to fully fledged servers.


If the port is open and the service listening, we've probably found an open proxy. Many of these are in corporate and academic networks. The administrator may have installed a proxy server or some application that installed one itself. If the proxy has not been restricted to listen to only IP addresses on it's own network it will happily function for everyone that can connect.

The point I'm trying to make is that the server is not anonymous or secure in any true sense of the word. It's by it's very existence - insecure, if the server had been configured properly you wouldn't be able to use it!

Many of these servers are infected and exploited by numerous worms that scan address ranges looking for vulnerable servers. Anything on the internet will get scanned by these worms almost hourly.

If you are using a free anonymous proxy, it's because it's not been patched, secured or set up properly, if it has then it's probably been done deliberately in order to try and steal accounts and passwords. The proxy server that you use will have a complete record of everything you do on line, the logs on private, professionally run proxy servers like Identity Cloaker will be deleted almost instantly, do you know what happens to your logs on the anonymous proxy you've picked up for free on the internet ? No of course you will have no idea.

It's of course tempting to save money by using free resources on the internet, I do it myself all the time. But just think carefully before trying to get security for free, it is usually more insecure than doing nothing.