Tag Archives: users
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.
Web Hosting Comments – What Do They Tell Us?
It is interesting to sit and read user web hosting comments about various hosting companies. Obviously there are some companies that provide a poor service and attract a lot of negative comments but looking at the top companies the key difference seems to be the quality of support and how it is delivered.
The top companies seem to receive overwhelmingly positive web hosting comments from their customers and even the ones with many negative reviews still have some very satisfied customers.
When customers get angry and post very negative web hosting comments the issue is usually not that a problem occurred but that the support team were unhelpful and unable to resolve it. It is highly likely that if the initial problem had been resolved properly the users would have written a positive review rather than a negative one.
As hosting is a long distance purchase (maybe in another country) users feel powerless if they are being ignored and vent their feelings by telling the world to avoid their appalling host.
Apart from complaints about their site being down for one reason or another many negative web hosting comments are about financial matters. This often relates to cancellations and refunds.
It would be very interesting to hear the hosting companies side of some of these web hosting comments as I can see that in some cases they were simply applying the conditions set out in their Terms of Service. These, for example, set out the process for cancellation and what refunds will be given. One particular issue seems to be cancellations where a domain name is included in the package. A host’s website may say that a money back guarantee relates to hosting costs (i.e there is a charge for the domain name) but many users think a “money back guarantee” is just that.
It is normal for users of shared hosting to be responsible for their own backups. This does not mean that hosts will not take backups but that they do it without accepting any liability for lost data. It is clear from several web hosting comments that many users do not understand this.
All this reinforces my view that the most important criteria to apply when choosing a hosting company is the quality of their support (assuming of course that they meet your technical requirements). You must expect support to be available 24/7 by telephone as well as email and probably chat and you want to see good web hosting comments about the support from existing users. It is also well worthwhile reading the Terms of Service, you will then be aware of any “hidden” charges and what the responsibilities of each party are.