Anyone using a IP Blocker?

[GWN7]

Anyone using a IP Blocker?

Discussing IP masks/ IP blockers regarding cutting the cord today and it seems like a good idea.

Who is using what?

[svandamme]

why would you need to block "your IP", unless you are doing something illegal that might warrant somebody from investigating "who is behind the IP they found while investigating the crime"?

Your IP is justa number, an adress, and only your ISP would know who is behind that.

You could use a VPN tunnel to make it appear you are accessing the internet from another location, for instance to bypass GEO blocking by certain content providers.. but that's a whole different story.

[Peterfrans]

I guess because he wants to prevent the nuisance of being called by telemarketeers, preferably at dinner time or another inconvenient moment. Furthermore, by combining personal identifiable information it is easy to build a profile of who is behind the IP, and then the fun really starts.

[RKDinOKC]

With regards to cord cutting IP blockers/VPN Tunnel does 2 things. It lets you get past Geo blocking for example to watch sports events. And it encrypts traffic and web sites you are visiting from your ISP.

But you still have the connection from that VPN host to whatever sites you are visiting. The traffic itself can be encrypted with SSL connections, but VPNs still log the public VPN IP connecting to the Public SSL IP.

As far as protection goes, if a hacker can get to your computer thru the Public IP from your ISP, they can also get to your computer thru the public IP of the VPN.

[stomachmonkey]

You want a service that does not log.

Personally I use Nord. They are always running some sort of special. Think this year I'm paying like $2.00 a month and am not limited to one active concurrent connection.

I've used others like Pure and prefer Nord.

Be advised that using a VPN will slow down your connection.

Nord let's you pick servers based on distance to server and how congested it is which helps.

And using a VPN is not just for illegal activities.

In my line of work access to Microsoft and SONY resources I need to do my job are IP restricted.

Meaning I have to give them an IP address to associate with my profile.

VPN services allow me to access the same IP address regardless of where I happen to be.

[GWN7]

Originally Posted by svandamme

why would you need to block "your IP", unless you are doing something illegal that might warrant somebody from investigating "who is behind the IP they found while investigating the crime"?

Your IP is justa number, an adress, and only your ISP would know who is behind that.

You could use a VPN tunnel to make it appear you are accessing the internet from another location, for instance to bypass GEO blocking by certain content providers.. but that's a whole different story.

Good questions. As I know little about either (IP Blockers or VPN Tunnels) this is why I started this thread.

This came up last spring and after talking to a friend about security and reading about pending and existing legislation I want to know more. I don't like the idea of anyone tracking which cartoons I watch with my grandson and I already know my IP tracks what devices I have online.

Either that or my international criminal conspiracy cartel/Foundation needs to be protected.

All good posts so far.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Peterfrans

I guess because he wants to prevent the nuisance of being called by telemarketeers, preferably at dinner time or another inconvenient moment. Furthermore, by combining personal identifiable information it is easy to build a profile of who is behind the IP, and then the fun really starts.

How would telemarketeers link your phone with you IP adress and actually do something with that information?

Pretty sure they fetch more from cookies on the pc and from people signing up to dodgy websites, mail lists, browser plugins and applications on the pc, then they could ever get from reverse lookup of tcpIP adress you use to get online.


VPN to workaround Geoblocking ,that's the primary use I can think off.
But added security.. for most people it's not going to do much securing since the #1 security problem is still the person behind the computer.

Security is a balancing act, more security = less practical. To much security means you can't do anything.
The most secure pc , well, unplug the cable, and now we are talking.

Personally i don't over think it.
Have decent passwords for important things like banking and primary email
Have different passwords for the important things
use easy junk passwords for the nonsense pages, don't use 1 for both

Have a secundary mailbox where you can assign aliasses for junk
Only use the aliasses for things like purchaces and signups on dodgy websites.
Change that alias often with a new itteration, like svdspam1@whateverdomain.com
if the spam picks up on that mailbox, switch the alias to svdspam2@whateverdomain.com
etc etc

Don't install to many plugins
have a good AV, that is up to date

Do not click banners on websites
Do not install dodgy pirate software
keep kids of your important computer.
keep the wife off the important computer if she's isn't savvy

Don't jump on any wifi network you find if it's a laptop, and you are traveling

[RKDinOKC]

Never use your browser autofill and make sure it is clear! Web sites can access that data without you knowing it.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by GWN7

Good questions. As I know little about either (IP Blockers or VPN Tunnels) this is why I started this thread.

This came up last spring and after talking to a friend about security and reading about pending and existing legislation I want to know more. I don't like the idea of anyone tracking which cartoons I watch with my grandson and I already know my IP tracks what devices I have online.

Either that or my international criminal conspiracy cartel/Foundation needs to be protected.

All good posts so far.

There really is no such thing as an IP Blocker.

You can't use the internet without an IP address.

Any request for data needs to know the return IP address in order to return the requested data.

It's a really poor description for what is really taking place, hiding or masking your originating IP by replacing it with another that in theory does not lead back to you.

[RKDinOKC]

Okay here is how it works...

Everything on the internet is accessed via a public IP addresses.
Your service provider provides you with a modem/router.
A router sits between two networks and routes traffic between the two networks.
If an IP address is not in your private network, ie not another device on your private network, the traffic is directed to go thru the router to the public realm.
Because the device has a private IP it is translated to the public IP of your router.
All traffic to outside your private network uses the public IP of your router.
Your router keeps track of which connections to outside devices go with which private device.
This is called Network Address Translation or NAT.

Next is a secure server.
When you connect to a secure server your traffic to an from that server is encrypted. There is a trust relationship with the server having a certificate from a certificate authority proving it is the server it says it is, then the connection is encrypted. This happens BEFORE you login with username and password so that information is encrypted. However it still shows there is traffic from your public IP to the IP of the secure server. It is just that the data is encrypted.

A VPN or Virtual Private Network.
A VPN is a router that connects with your private device like a secure server.
It establishes an encrypted connection between your private devices and a Private Network that can be a range of IP addresses. If when connected to a VPN all traffic to the IP addresses in the range of the VPN are routed encrypted thru the VPN router to that network. And example would be a VPN encrypted connection to a firewalled network at work.

VPN Services
This is like a VPN only that ALL your traffic is encrypted to a VPN server, then uses the VPN service's public IP addresses and are unencrypted from there. That is why it works for Georetricted network servers. The VPN's public address is in the range off addresses for the locality you want to access the georestircted servers so it looks like a local IP address to those servers. The encrypted connection between your device and the VPN keeps your ISP from seeing anything except that you are making a connection to the VPN server. Even though you are using a VPN you still have public traffic from the VPN server to sites you visit. To remain anonymous you need to make sure the VPN service does not keep logs of the NAT tables used for their VPN traffic that can be traced back to your router. And just because you are going thru a VPN does not mean it will protect you from visiting sites with malware.

There is a hack out now for wi-fi networks with security and encryption. The hack is in the establishment of the connection and the hackers can monitor your traffic just like it was not encrypted. That is why you want to be very wary of any wi-fi offered when you travel. And keep your devices and wi-fi routers up-to-date!

[id10t]

I block lots of sites from my network at the DNS level

Very nice not seeing adverts, getting tracking cookies, etc.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by RKDinOKC

< blah, blah, blah>
This is called Network Address Translation or NAT.
< more blah, blah, blah>

Technically, what's occurring in the case above is PAT (Port address translation), but you've got the idea, and we'll give you a pass on the NAT vs PAT thing.



999999 times out of 1000000 (probably much more frequently than that, actually), PAT is happening.

[RKDinOKC]

Did not want to make it more confusing. Beside I do have more than one private IP going out through my one Public IP port translation or not.