Every device connected to the internet has a specific address known as IP (Internet Protocol) address. The IP address is composed of a series of numbers separated by decimal points. It looks somewhat similar to “198.169.0.100.”
This number is essential for communication between different devices and is also very important for exchanging data. Every device present on the internet has its own IP address, such as your router, mobile phone, computer, etc.
Since this IP address acts as an identifier for you on the internet, others having access to it can potentially use it against you.
First of all, I want to clarify that most users don’t have to worry about revealing their IP addresses as no hacker would waste time to know your specific IP address because there is no real reward in it for them. However, it is good practice to hide your IP address. We will see its importance in the later section of the article.
In fact, every website you come across knows your IP address. That’s how they exchange information between their servers and you.
It’s essential to keep your IP address anonymous because these websites have the potential to take certain measures against you if they know your IP. Some of the ways by which they can manipulate your IPs are:
If the corresponding authority knows your real IP address. In that case, it can cause restrictions in performing certain online activities, for example, restricting you from accessing a particular website or posting a comment in the forums of certain websites.
Sometimes they can also impose a permanent IP ban on you.
It can be very troublesome for gaming lovers because they can ban you from playing games that are not available in your area and can cause hurdles in accessing online gaming services. That was just one example. There are hundreds of other use cases like these.
Knowing someone’s geographic location is very easy by knowing the IP address of that person. However, in most cases, it is not more specific than city or state. But there are possibilities that it can be exploited to make it as specific to your neighborhood.
Not only this, but your IP address also reveals the name of your Internet Service Provider.
You might be thinking that information is not so important to know about you. However, it can play a very major role in information gathering techniques about you which can ultimately reveal your identity.
If someone knows your IP address and he/she is in a mood to annoy you, the other person may perform a (D)DoS attack by flooding your network with data which will ultimately prevent normal traffic from getting through and will cause a network failure.
However, these attacks are usually meant for large websites and companies, but can also be performed on a regular user, so one must be careful about it.
There are a lot of ways by which your IP address can be protected. We will discuss each one by one.
The easiest and the most convenient way is to use a proxy server. If you are looking for amazing proxy services, don’t forget to look at ProxyScrape residential and Premium proxies. Proxies keep your identity anonymous by hiding it from the server you are connecting to. So using proxies are one of the simplest ways to surf anonymously on the internet.
A VPN is another way to hide your IP address besides having many other benefits. It automatically replaces your IP with a different one, but testing it is very important before using any VPN service. If someone wants high encryption, one can always go for paid services.
Using multiple WiFi connections can also help you to get rid of people knowing your specific IP. If you notice that someone is trying to spy on you, try different WiFi connections and switch between them from time to time. It will assign you a new IP whenever connected to a new WiFi connection.
If you are using static IP addresses, you can connect with your Internet Service Provider to provide you with a dynamic IP address. The major advantage of using a dynamic IP address is that you will get a new IP address every time you are connected to the internet.
One should always keep on updating their firewall and router credentials because it is the prime priority of hackers to try default passwords to attack any network. In this way, they can know the IP of every device connected to that specific network.
In this article, we have seen what an IP address is and its importance in terms of your identity. We have seen how someone can exploit it to know more about it. If revealing your IP address is not directly impacting you, one must keep in mind it may have indirect implications that can be very harmful in the long term. We have also explored different ways by which you can hide your IP address and keep yourself safe while surfing anonymously. I hope this article was of valuable information for the readers. That was all. See you in the next one. Stay tuned!
