Tag Archives: company
Internet Users Face Unseen Dangers by not Hiding their IP Address (Page 1 of 2)
Many Internet users fail to realize the importance of hiding their IP address to maintain Internet privacy. Web surfers may know to maintain anonymity with a proxy server, but it is important for everyone to know the many reasons why an IP address should be masked and hidden while surfing. An Internet Protocol address is a numerical identification number given to devices in a computer network. Each device must know its own IP address and the IP address of the device with which it needs to communicate. Every person, company, device, or server that is online at has an IP address, which is similar to persons home address. Someone must have your home address to send you a letter; much like a device must have your IP address to relay a packet of information. IP addresses hold a vast amount of information and knowing how to control the amount of information a website or company can gain on each user is up to the user.
An IP address maintains a record of geographic information based on where the user is surfing from. Many websites are readily available that allows a user to find his or her own IP address. Not only will these websites easily show a users IP address, but also what city, state, and country they are surfing from and the ISP they are using. A website will not be able to track a user down to their home address based on their IP, but in most cases it can get within a few miles with great accuracy, depending on the closest network hub. A subpoenaed ISP or a company checking their web logs on the other hand can easily locate the users home or cubicle. Some of the better websites will also give the users area code, geographic longitude and latitude, whether a proxy is being used, and the type of Internet connection (cable, dsl, etc.) a user has.
Users surfing from work can benefit from masking their IP address. When connecting from work, the IP address is generated from the companys Internet server, which gives all the same information previously stated. This information is not directly tracked to a specific user, but to the company itself. If an employee is researching the competition, the competitor will see the IP address of the company and could send them to a “dummy” site with false information. Another reason an employee may want to hide their IP at work is to avoid breaking company guidelines by surfing for personal reasons. If an employee masks his or her IP while surfing it will not be tracked back to the company. A good proxy server will also hide the origin site (the site the user just came from) with a fake domain so that the company web logs will not show the real sites the employee was surfing.
Aside from work purposes, web surfers have many personal reasons to hide their IP. Search engines, marketing companies, and even their own Internet Service Provider track and record their data. Masking the IP address with an anonymous proxy is a great way to avoid being monitored by these companies. They associate the stored data with the “fake” IP address, leaving the users real IP address free from having been recorded or spammed. Users may also find that their IP address is blocked from accessing certain content or websites. This can be due to guideline violations, bandwidth limits, or the website blocking IPs/only allowing IPs from certain places. Surfing with an anonymous proxy will allow surfers to use a fresh IP address whenever they encounter one of these restrictions, or to avoid having their surfing habits tracked and recorded.
Internet Users Face Unseen Dangers by not Hiding their IP Address (Page 1 of 2)
Many Internet users fail to realize the importance of hiding their IP address to maintain Internet privacy. Web surfers may know to maintain anonymity with a proxy server, but it is important for everyone to know the many reasons why an IP address should be masked and hidden while surfing. An Internet Protocol address is a numerical identification number given to devices in a computer network. Each device must know its own IP address and the IP address of the device with which it needs to communicate. Every person, company, device, or server that is online at has an IP address, which is similar to persons home address. Someone must have your home address to send you a letter; much like a device must have your IP address to relay a packet of information. IP addresses hold a vast amount of information and knowing how to control the amount of information a website or company can gain on each user is up to the user.
An IP address maintains a record of geographic information based on where the user is surfing from. Many websites are readily available that allows a user to find his or her own IP address. Not only will these websites easily show a users IP address, but also what city, state, and country they are surfing from and the ISP they are using. A website will not be able to track a user down to their home address based on their IP, but in most cases it can get within a few miles with great accuracy, depending on the closest network hub. A subpoenaed ISP or a company checking their web logs on the other hand can easily locate the users home or cubicle. Some of the better websites will also give the users area code, geographic longitude and latitude, whether a proxy is being used, and the type of Internet connection (cable, dsl, etc.) a user has.
Users surfing from work can benefit from masking their IP address. When connecting from work, the IP address is generated from the companys Internet server, which gives all the same information previously stated. This information is not directly tracked to a specific user, but to the company itself. If an employee is researching the competition, the competitor will see the IP address of the company and could send them to a “dummy” site with false information. Another reason an employee may want to hide their IP at work is to avoid breaking company guidelines by surfing for personal reasons. If an employee masks his or her IP while surfing it will not be tracked back to the company. A good proxy server will also hide the origin site (the site the user just came from) with a fake domain so that the company web logs will not show the real sites the employee was surfing.
Aside from work purposes, web surfers have many personal reasons to hide their IP. Search engines, marketing companies, and even their own Internet Service Provider track and record their data. Masking the IP address with an anonymous proxy is a great way to avoid being monitored by these companies. They associate the stored data with the “fake” IP address, leaving the users real IP address free from having been recorded or spammed. Users may also find that their IP address is blocked from accessing certain content or websites. This can be due to guideline violations, bandwidth limits, or the website blocking IPs/only allowing IPs from certain places. Surfing with an anonymous proxy will allow surfers to use a fresh IP address whenever they encounter one of these restrictions, or to avoid having their surfing habits tracked and recorded.
Running a Dedicated Server – Part I
Running dedicated servers is never easy, and you will undoubtedly have quite a few settings to sift through if you want to give your users the best experience possible. That being said, how CAN you improve the overall user experience? The first thing you will need to do when setting up any dedicated servers is take a look at the control panel and set up the necessary items. For instance, if you are planning to use this server for public webmail then you may wish to configure the webmail server on the box.
You will need to look around of course and become familiar with the different aspects of your server, and once you do, you will be ready to configure some of the more complicated items. For instance you might move on to the FTP, and the great thing about renting dedicated servers is that the hard part is already done. All you will need to do is configure your FTP password and add users if necessary.
Nameservers should also be configured whether they are being hosted remotely or on the same box. Note that running your own nameservers can actually be quite beneficial to your company as a Whois’ will make it seem as if the company is larger than it is, especially if it is using its own name servers.
Configuring backups is another very important part of your dedicated server, and the option should be sitting in the control panel. These backups will in most cases be recorded to an outside location, but in some cases the backups will actually be stored on the dedicated server in a separate partition. Either will work, but no matter what, make sure your server is performing automatic backups at least once per day. This will ensure that the site stays up and running no matter what!
There are many more aspects in running your own dedicated server of course, and they will be addressed later on. What you need to know right now is that while you have accepted a huge responsibility, it is one that may very well help your company grow into a success. A dedicated server appears more professional, mostly because it is, and it will draw more customers to your website.
You may start with a simple shared hosting plan of course, but it is the eventual goal of any company to move toward the dedicated package. Yes, a dedicated package is going to be more expensive, but there are a few distinct differences. For example a dedicated server will provide you with root access whereas a shard package would give you no such thing. The logic behind this is that you can feel free to disrupt your own experience is one thing, but disrupting the experience of others is certainly unsound. This is decent logic, and it will undoubtedly save many different user experiences whether they are on the user end of your website or on the admin end.
If you’re ready to make a difference in your bui9sness then you’re undoubtedly ready to take advantage of the dedicated server options. Dedicated hosting will open up all kinds of new possibilities for you, some of which are still very much unseen. You never know what might around the corner!