What Are Anonymizers?

Just about everything you do in a computer is logged. In Windows, there are event handels that log main events performed by the user, such as logging into the computer. On Linux, even things such as error logging for the xorg server is performed, and some programs that users intent to use for malicious purposes, even log locally on the computers, without the users consent. The programs are not logging because they know you are conducting abuse, but because the logging is used for error-checking. However, if you find yourself in trouble, the error-logs can point the police to evidence of your mis-doing.

Say you manage to attack and compromise a webserver, and remove the logs, you're still not safe though. There is another thing that prevents you from being completely undetectable, Your IP/Domain address, and this is what this tutorial will primarily be focusing on.

What is an Anonymizer?

Anonymizers are online services that eliminate the trail of information that you leave behind, whilst surfing, so that your online activities cannot be traced back to you. The anonymizers vary in sophistication depending on the level of security and number of features that you require. Some anonymizers require the use of client software and others only require that you log onto their website before browsing other sites.

How do Anonymizers work?

You essentially surf the Web through the anonymizer site, going to that site first and then routing all your pages from there. When you send a page request through the anonymizer, it acts like a super-proxy server, stripping off the header of each data packet, thus making your request anonymous. The requested page is then fed through the anonymizer back to your Web browser.


In order to avoid being tracked, one can use an anonymous proxy to surf the web. An anonymous proxy makes sure your IP address does not get stored on the web server logs. Web servers log every ?GET? request made, together with date, hour, and IP. But if you are accessing the Internet through a proxy server, then the IP of the proxy is logged and not yours.
In case you do not go through an anonymous proxy, then you are actually risking vital information that belongs to you. For example, a hacker can easily find out your IP Address, your web browser, your Operating System and even the previous URL that you have visited. You can also be easily located geographically (provided one has the necessary software tools) because people can find out a whole lot of things that give your location. Like your hostname, your continent, your country, your city and even your Internet Service Provider.
Consider the scenario where a hacker gets access to your computer, he can find out your name, email address, telephone number, various user ID's and passwords, details about software you use and your preferences, locations of files and folders, the search strings that you used and literally hundreds of other personal things. All this information is stored in files like SYSTEM.ini, USER.dat, SYSTEM.dat etc. One very important file is the nsform??.TMP which stores all the data inside every Netscape form you've ever submitted, with and without SSL, when the submission failed or was canceled.

Some of the best Anonymizers:

• Anonymouse - A very good free anonymizer. By using this CGI proxy you can anonymously surf web pages, send anonymous e-mails and look at news.


• ProxyKing.net - This anonymizer service keeps websites from tracking your internet movements by preventing them from placing cookies on your home computer.


• AnonymousIndex.com - Anonymous private surfing service, hide your ip, manage website ads, referrers and cookies through this free web based proxy.


• HideMyAss.com - Free anonymous browsing, for the times when you REALLY need to hide your ass online!


• ProxyFoxy.com - Proxy Foxy offers you free anonymous surfing. With our free tool you can surf the Internet safe and secure without revealing your identity. Avoid cookies, spyware and other malicious scripts.