How to hide ip: How to Set Up an IPSec VPN Connection

| author: programming

How to hide ip: How to Set Up an IPSec VPN Connection

Posted: 04 Aug 2011 02:00 AM PDT

The IPSec protocol suite is used to secure IP packets during an communication session. The end-to-end security that is implemented on IPSec allows for this to be implemented either in a host-to-host flow, network-to-network or in a network-to-host data flows. When implementing an IPSec VPN connection when located behind a router or when using a private IP address, a download update is required from Microsoft to successfully connect to an IPSec VPN connection.

The Process

Create a new network connection from the "My Network Places" on any Windows operating system.

Use the "Virtual Private Network Connection" for this connection. Some this option is not available. To re-enable it, go to your processes and enable the Remote Access Connection Manager.

Type a connection name under the "VPN Server Selection" window in the format shown below:

Ipsec.newyork.edu

Do not use a smart card when prompted to use one.

When configured properly, the VPN connection should open automatically allowing you to configure the already set up connection.

Right click the new VPN connection icon and select "Properties".

Set the type of VPN to "L2TP IPSec VPN".

Check the items below under the field "This connection uses the following items":

Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
Client for Microsoft Networks
QoS Packet Scheduler

Set the connection to get an automatic IP and DNS address.

When establishing an IPSec VPN connection, it may take some time before the connection and settings are picked, so be patient and give it a little time before making changes to the connection or using new configurations.

When troubleshooting IPSEC VPN connections, the first place you want to look at is the IPSEC System Log. The log will provide fine details on what is keeping the connection from establishing and can help you to determine what is going on.

L2TP tunneling protocol is implemented with IPSec because it lacks confidentiality. L2TP packets are hidden within IPSec packets securely hiding any information about the internal private network. In an L2TP/IPSec implementation, the IPSec thus provides the secure channel while the L2TP provides the tunnel or channel for packet transmission.

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How to Set Up an IPSec VPN Connection

How to hide ip: Make The Internet a Safer Place With AbuseIPDB.com

| author: programming

How to hide ip: Make The Internet a Safer Place With AbuseIPDB.com

Make The Internet a Safer Place With AbuseIPDB.com

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:30 AM PDT

The newly launched project AbuseIPDB.com is the place where you can report IP addresses that are involved in malicious activity or check whether an IP address has suspicious history.

What is generally considered as malicious activity? Any illegal, abusive or inappropriate activity, e.g. DDoS, any type of Spam, Fraud orders, Hacking attempts, Phishing, Spoofing, SQL Injection, etc.

Who is AbuseIPDB for?

Firstly, if you are a regular Internet user you are likely the permanent victim of spam, hacking attemps, phishing, etc. Why not let others know about the source of these malicious attacks? Report the IP address to AbuseIPDB.com and make the Internet safer.

Secondly, if you are service provider (hosting, VPN, etc.) you can reduce the percentage of fraudulent orders by checking the IP addresses of the subscribers when a new orders are placed. AbuseIPDB.com offers an API for checking and reporting IP addresses, that can be integrated with any website.

How to use AbuseIPDB?

In order to check an IP address, go to AbuseIPDB.com, enter the IP address and press Check it button.

If the IP is already in the database the relevant information will be shown:

Further, you can find details about previous complaints (Click here for details) or find more info about the IP owner (Whois …). If you want to report an abuse related to the IP address click the Report … button. You will be redirected to a page where you will be able to enter info related to the abuse:

For those that want to use the abuse database through the API, registration is needed and detailed instructions are available in order to make the access easy and straightforward.

To be honest I find the AbuseIPDB project very promising and I recommend everyone to report any IP address that is a source of spam or other malicious activities. Together will make the Internet a cleaner and safer place!

What do you think about AbuseIPDB? Will you use it to report malicious activities?

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Make The Internet a Safer Place With AbuseIPDB.com

TOR: An Anonymizer For Online Activists, and More

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 02:27 AM PDT

So you are an online activist? Or you just don’t want to be tracked when doing your things on the internet. Let’s consider one publicly available solution that most activists are already using so as to override some internet censorship. Note: this post isn’t about inviting you to do censored things on the internet – this is about an open source, though publicly available, solution that is used by most citizen media activists around the world.

The very nature of this post is to open how-to-hide-ip.info readers’eye to an existing technology geared toward people who desperately look for a way to anonymize their online activity, to work around some local internet censorship that they may have. By the way, at this time of writing, and according to TOR’s FAQ "Tor is not illegal anywhere in the world, so using Tor by itself is fine."

So what is TOR: in fact it’s a kind of "peer-to-peer" concept but used for security purposes. It actually is a distributed network and anonymous network that is particularly helpful to people who don’t want their internet traffic to be tracked since the packets are distributed over the whole TOR network. To quote TOR’s website "The idea is similar to using a twisty, hard-to-follow route in order to throw off somebody who is tailing you — and then periodically erasing your footprints."

So instead of rewriting a summary of what can be done with TOR service, I’d rather link you to the necessary materials, then you take whatever fits for your needs.

So let’s say that you want to organize an anonymous online meeting so secure that even the participants can’t even be tracked. You may want to consider establishing a "rendez-vous" point within the TOR network via their hidden services.

Be careful though, as it is the case with other security packages, there are some warnings you need to be aware of. Check them here.

The good thing about joining the TOR network is that it is available for multiple platforms (linux, mac, windows, …), if you want to give it a try, you may want to check the installation guides.

This blog is about "online anonymity guide" , and I thought TOR actually is inline with what we’re trying to show our users here. We’d love to hear from you how you’d use TOR services for anonymizing your internet activity. Share your views in the comment section.

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TOR: An Anonymizer For Online Activists, and More

How to hide ip: Different Ways of Hiding Your IP

| author: programming

How to hide ip: Different Ways of Hiding Your IP

Different Ways of Hiding Your IP

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 12:59 AM PDT

You are probably well aware of the fact that knowing an IP address of a computer reveals a lot of things about that user. The basic theory of the nets and the Internet is the fact that uploaded and downloaded packets carry your destination address and can be easily used to track you down. Fortunately, there are different ways of hiding your IP, or at least making it difficult for others to track where you are located.

Proxy Services

These are used to provide anonymity to users that hiding your final IP address before going online. Since not all proxies are reliable, it is always a good idea to check that your IP address is in fact anonymous by using the tool on this website. Before connecting to a proxy, check your IP address and then do that again after you connect. The IP should now be different.

Anonymizers

These are usually paid proxy services that have their own Web interface allowing you to hide your IP addresses from online resources. Using anonymizers is certainly great if you are looking for high level anonymity but it comes at a cost and at slow speeds.

Cookie Technology

Cookies are small files that are stored locally on your PC and are used by websites nd online resources to learn about your web habits, follow your Web routes and can ultimately be used to locate you. Cookies are only about 4KB in size but for anyone looking for anonymity, they will want to ensure that no cookies are saved on their PC. Even with special access limitation to preserve data confidentiality that only allows servers that put the data in the cookies to access it, it is easy to see how this information can be used maliciously. The browser options can be used to disable cookies and prevent websites from saving data on your PC.

"Hide IP" Software

Software can be used to manage your proxy service features and configure your setting to provide anonymity. The use of software as opposed to accessing a proxy directly enables the setting of features that you may easily bypass, especially if you don't know much about proxies. There are many software packages available online to help you hide your IP.

Socks Technology

This usually provides total anonymity, in principle. Socks technology uses the socks-protocols where a socks-server receives requests and retargets the returned data back. The communication between a PC and the socks-server takes place using special protocols designated as socks4, socks5 etc effectively making the user's IP address impossible to guess.

Learning how to hide your IP address and stay protected is an ongoing process and keeping up with the latest on computer security will help you stay ahead of the curve.

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Different Ways of Hiding Your IP

How to hide ip: Free VPN Service – VPN Reactor

| author: programming

How to hide ip: Free VPN Service – VPN Reactor

Free VPN Service – VPN Reactor

Posted: 01 Aug 2011 05:20 AM PDT

Passing Thoughts - I will call VPN Reactor a free VPN service worth a shot for your daily usage only if you aren't working on anything that requires security. At least, it hides your IP address!

In my upcoming articles you will read more about some of the best and free VPN services. This article will throw some light on VPN Reactor and why it could be one of your favourite free VPN Services.

VPN Reactor provides free PPTP which is actually enabled by the local operating system of the computer thus the requirement of using any software is eliminated. Basically, VPN Reactor is a small network of servers and it does not feature any server switching.

PPTP has widely been tagged as non-secure when compared to OpenVPN services due to which the free VPN service provided by VPN Reactor can be tagged as non-secure and prone to attacks.

Must Read: Is a Free VPN Safe?

Once you register and confirm your account with VPN Reactor then you get a specific server which you will be using while connecting to the outside network via VPN Reactor. To setup your connection all that you have to do is start a new connection setup from Network and Sharing Center in control panel. Enter the server name that comes in confirmation email and your VPN Reactor ID/Password when required. You can follow the pretty simple VPN Reactor tutorials if you face any issues or if you are using any other operating system.

Something that hurts the value of VPN Reactor is their TOS. VPN Reactor clearly states that they have the rights to disclose your personal data and the usage logs if:

You are spamming.
Abusing their service.
In case a court order pops up.
Violating TOS.

To contradict their TOS the privacy policy of VPN Reactor states that they do not keep logs. I am not sure who is creating their content but for sure they need to do a thorough proof read of the same.

Salman Siddiqui is an expert technology analyst. His vast experience of freelance writing is backed by his passion to swim against the tide. You can grab him on Twitter.

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Free VPN Service – VPN Reactor

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