How to Hide IP address [Top 5 Methods]

Go through this guide to know how to hide your IP address. This article will give you the easiest and impressive solutions:

An IP address, or an Internet Protocol Address, is a unique address that is written in the form of numerical terms and is used to represent a specific device that uses the Internet or a local network.

For example, 163.53.76.86 is an IP address that represents Flipkart, 152.142.175.21 represents McDonald’s USA, etc.

If you want to know your IP address, just type “What’s my IP address” in the Google search bar and you will get the result.

Every device or local network has a unique IP address. Some mischievous people can try to get access to your IP address, in order to gather your personal information or to commit some kind of cyber-crime.

How to Hide IP Address

If you want to maintain the privacy of your IP address and, for other security reasons, you should always try to avoid opening doubtful websites or clicking on suspicious links.

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Hiding your IP address is essential, due to the following reasons:

1. Your IP address can access your surfing history. Thus, it may lead to several kinds of scams.
2. Hiding your IP address saves you from hackers.
3. An IP address can track your location, which is a major security risk.
4. Marketing agents can use your IP address to get your browsing history, to send you personalized ads.

Now, since it’s necessary that you should hide your IP address, here we will tell you about some ways through which you can do so.

This article tells you about the top five simplest, easiest, and most affordable ways on how to hide your IP address. Every method has its own merits and demerits. Go through the details to find out the best one for yourself.

Hide IP Address: Top Methods

#1) Using a VPN

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A Virtual Private Network is probably the easiest way to hide your IP address. A VPN acts as a mediator between you (your device) and the internet. This way, the websites you surf get access to the IP address of the VPN server you are using, but can not access your real IP address.

There are many VPNs that let you hide IP addresses free of cost, or at nominal charges. While choosing a good VPN, you should always look for the one that offers leak protection features, that is, your information is protected and will not be accessed by any third party, anyhow.

NordVPN and IPVanish VPN are two of the best VPN service providers out there.

Let’s discuss them in some detail:

a) NordVPN

NordVPN is one of the fastest VPN service providers in the world that lets you connect with more than 5,000 servers from around the world.

This VPN application is extremely easy to use, and it lets you connect up to six devices with a single account and gives you risk-free services for a month. You can opt to cancel the services within the first month of use and get your money back instantly.

Price plans offered by NordVPN are as follows:

• $3.29 per month, if you opt for a 2-year plan.
• $4.92 per month, if you opt for a 1-year plan.
• $11.95 per month, if you opt for a 1-month plan.

In order to hide your VPN with the help of NordVPN, follow these steps:

• First of all, download NordVPN’s application. Android users can download it from Google Play Store, iOS users need to go to Apple Store and Windows as well as Mac users can download the application from the website. Or you can find the link for downloading the app here.
• Once you have downloaded and installed the application, you need to sign up and create your account (Or Log in, if you have already created an account).

• Choose a price plan, pay for the subscription. They offer a free trial for 7 days.
• Your account activates once you have chosen a plan.
• Now you can choose from the list of locations, from all over the world, and get connected.

b) IPVanish VPN

If you are looking for how to hide your IP address, then IPVanish VPN is a highly recommended VPN application for you. It is affordable and easy to use, plus it lets you connect unlimited devices with one subscription plan.

They provide setups for desktop, mobile, consoles, and routers, thus tackling the online security needs for your whole home at once.

Price plans offered by IPVanish VPN are as follows:

• $10.99 per month, if paid monthly.
• $3.20 per month, if paid annually.

They also give you a 30-day money-back guarantee (with the annual plan only), which means that you can get your money back if in case you decide to discontinue using their services within the first month of use.

You need to download their application. The link for downloading can be found on their website. They also offer Antivirus and Backup services along with the VPN service.

You can also choose from the various free options of VPNs available, but they would not be providing you with the best-in-class security as well as speed as the paid ones do.

c) Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access does an exceptional job of completely concealing your IP address. Easy to set-up and use, Private Internet Access will prevent your ISP, government authorities, and other entities online from spying on your browsing activity. The VPN doesn’t keep logs and respects its user’s privacy. 

Private Internet Access has world-class servers in over 93 countries. As such, you can enjoy unthrotled internet speeds with this VPN on. 

Pricing: Private Internet Access offers the following subscription plans:

• 1 Month: $9.95
• 1 Year: $39.95
• 3 years: $79. 

A 30 day money back guarantee also applies to the above plans. 

How to use Private Internet Access

To use Private Internet Access, simply follow the below steps:

1. Select a plan and register to create your account. 
2. Download and install the app on your system
3. Choose from the list of servers to connect
4. The VPN will be activated

d) Atlas VPN

Best for Streaming Optimization.

Atlas VPN quickly and very effectively hides your IP address so you can enjoy a private browsing experience. Unlike traditional VPN services, Atlas does not affect your browsing speed. You get to choose from more than 750 high-speed servers around the world. The solution reroutes all your traffic through a secure tunnel.

So you can rest easy knowing nobody online can pry on your browsing activities. The solution’s also great to keep instances of data breach and malware infect at bay. Atlas protects you from cyber-attacks with the help of ChaCha20, AES-256, and IPSec/IKEv2 encryption.

Features:

• No bandwidth limites
• No logs policy
• Malware blocking
• Data Breach Monitoring
• SafeSwap

Price:

• Monthly Plan: $11.99
• Yearly Plan: $4.08/month
• 3 Year Plan: $1.99/month

#2) Using Tor to Hide Your IP Address

Tor is one of the best and most popular options to hide IP addresses free of cost. It is safe to use and protects your privacy.

You just need to download and install the Tor Browser on your device, in order to get started. Once you have installed Tor on your device, you can start surfing the internet, just like you do, with Chrome, Firefox, etc.

The main reasons for the popularity of Tor are the features that it serves its users.

For example, you will not be followed by unwanted and interrupting ads, all the cookies stored in your device as well as your browsing history will get cleared, once you are done browsing, your information is encrypted multiple times and you can access the websites which were blocked by your home network, all at absolutely no cost. You can choose to donate towards Tor, though.

Apart from the many positive aspects of Tor, it has some drawbacks, too. For example, since your internet traffic passes through multiple nodes, or we can say multiple proxy servers, you may find the browsing speed to be slow.

Plus, many mischievous and criminal-minded people resort to Tor for their malicious activities. That’s why it doesn’t have a good reputation. Many countries have even banned Tor for these reasons.

Website: Tor

#3) Unplugging Your Modem to Get a New IP Address

This method lets you get a new IP address, instead of hiding your existing one.

If you are having an internet connection in your home or your office, there must be a modem installed (which converts the internet signals from your Internet Service provider into digital internet signals, so that you can connect your devices to the internet).

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Now if you want to change your IP address, you can do so by simply unplugging your modem and then plugging it on again. When you unplug your modem, your IP address will most likely get recycled and you will get a new IP address, once you re-establish your internet connection.

This tactic may not work all the time. You should leave the modem unplugged for a long duration, like a fortnight, if you want your result.

You can check whether your IP address has changed or not. You can Google “What’s my IP address” and will see a new one after doing this process.

#4) Connecting to a New Network Also Changes Your IP Address.

When you connect to a new network, like a new Wi-Fi connection, or even connecting to your mobile data, your IP address. This is one of the easiest ways to change your IP address, if you think your IP address is being tracked or blocked, etc.

But you should always keep in your mind that you should connect to a secure network, like the ones with a password, as open Wi-Fi connections are many times prone to danger from hackers and other cyber-crimes.

#5) Using Proxy Server like Smartproxy to Hide Your IP Address

Using the proxy servers of Smartproxy has to be one of the best ways to hide your IP address. This feature-rich proxy service is powered by over 40 million IPs. It also benefits from having data centers situated in 195 different locations all across the world. This allows you to browse the internet anonymously and even access geo-blocked content.

The proxy server assigns IPs to a physical device like a mobile phone or computer. This lessens the risk of you getting blocked by your internet service providers. The IP sessions are limited to 30 minutes. You’ll be assigned a different IP address immediately once your session expires. You also get to connect with data center proxies that support unlimited concurrent connections.

Features:

• More than 40 million rotating IPs
• Unlimited connection and threads
• Simple proxy setup
• 24/7 Customer support
• Sessions lasting 30 Minutes

Price: Smartproxy offers a flexible pricing plan. Pay as little as $12.5 for 1GB for small projects. Its Micro Plan will cost you $80/month for 8 GB, The starter 25 GB plan will cost you $225/month and the regular 50 GB plan will cost you $400/month. There is a 100 GB Enterprise plan also available, which starts at $700/month.

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When you surf a website on the internet, it can get access to your unique IP address and your location, which is a threat to your privacy and security.

By using a proxy server, you can safeguard your real IP address from being exposed to these websites. The website will only get access to the IP address of the proxy server.

Proxy servers as well as VPNs both provide you with security by safeguarding your IP address and exposing your own IP address instead.

There are a number of proxy servers out there. Examples of some of the best proxy servers are ‘kproxy’ and ‘HMA’.

a) KProxy

KProxy offers a free version as well as three paid plans, which are ad-free, allow unlimited downloads, give a money-back guarantee of 30-days, and much more.

Price plans offered by KProxy are as follows:

• Basic Plan: $5 for 10 days
• Premium Plan: $10 for 30 days
• VIP Plan: $30 for 180 days.

Website: KProxy

b) Bright Data

Bright Data is a highly trusted proxy server that gives good performance and has good nice ratings from its users. They offer a free trial for 7 days. Contact directly for customized pricing.

Website: Bright Data

Many of the proxy servers are available for free and are believed to be faster than VPNs. But there is a drawback of proxy servers over the VPN, which is that a proxy server is not as safe and secure as a VPN server is. Most VPNs keep your information encrypted so that no other party can get access to it, which is not the case with proxy servers.

Moreover, using a VPN is extremely simple, but setting up a proxy server can be a bit tricky for less tech-savvy people.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

With the emergence of this digital era, cyber-crimes are also increasing at a high rate. Many people are unaware of the fact that hiding the IP address is very necessary.

Many of the people who are not tech-savvy and somehow know about the privacy threats caused by the exposure of their real IP address think that it would be a tricky task to hide an IP address.

This article is all about the top 5 methods of how to hide your IP address. In the end, we can say that opting for a VPN can be the best choice for hiding an IP address. It may charge you some fees, but the results are worth it. You will be able to fully protect your privacy and get the desired speed.

If you do not want to pay any fees, then going for a proxy server or Tor will be good. You can also change your IP address by changing your internet network or by plugging off your modem.

These are the easiest ways to hide your IP address. Setting up a proxy server may require a bit of technical knowledge, but all the other methods are extremely simple and easy.