The safest and fastest way to hide your IP and replace it with a new one is by using a VPN. A reputable provider will not only give you a new IP address but also encrypt all the data you send and receive. Besides, connecting through a VPN will slow your internet connection significantly less than other methods.
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Tor
Tor is a free browser that encrypts your internet traffic and reroutes it through a few random nodes before connecting to the website you want. This process hides your real IP. Every time you visit a new website, you go through different nodes, making it difficult to track your actions online.
While Tor is a free tool that will hide your IP, it has some issues. It’s unstable, slow, and because it’s often associated with criminal activities, some websites block connections coming through Tor.
Proxies
Proxies are similar to VPNs in that they are the middleman between you and the internet. You get the IP address of the proxy server you connect through, but your traffic is not encrypted, there’s no authentication, and your internet connection is significantly slowed down. It’s not the best tool if you’re looking for privacy, but it will hide your real IP.
Using public Wi-Fi
Connecting to any network that’s other than your home Wi-Fi will temporarily change your IP. However, public Wi-Fi hotspots don’t offer any encryption, are easy to spoof, and often suffer from Man-in-the-middle attacks. So it’s best to avoid connecting to one if you can.
You might wonder why you need to hide your IP address in the first place. Here are the main reasons to do it:
If you don’t want online services and random people to know where you live, hiding your IP will do the trick.
Avoid censorship and surveillance. A new IP in another country will help you bypass censorship and restrictions.
From streaming to gaming: if your ISP doesn’t know where you go online, it can’t throttle your bandwidth.
Whether it’s your ISP, network administrator, or marketers — no one should know which websites you visit or what information you search for.