How to protect your IP address Online

You might not know it, but every time you go on the Internet, from checking your social media to playing games and chatting with friends, you are identifiable to the rest of the world by a numeric address. This “address” is your IP address or Internet Protocol address. It’s a unique combination of numbers that identifies computers or devices from one another to allow them to communicate through the Internet. It might look like this: 173.223.120.165. There are many reasons why cybercriminals might want your IP address, ranging from just messing with you to future larger-scale, targeted malicious attacks.

How can I protect my IP address?

You are typically assigned a dynamic (changes periodically) IP address by your ISP. However, you can sign up for a static address if you wanted to run a web server from your house. There is some debate as to which is safer, though it is arguably more secure to have a dynamic IP address. For this purpose, you must use the VPN.  This protects your data online by the use of encryption and proxy tunneling. It hides your IP address and redirects your traffic through a separate server, making it much safer for you online. VPN services are without question the best practice for hiding your IP address, says Burn. They can be found online with monthly service charges, however, the price might not be worth it for every home user. There are free VPN services out there. 

Ghost Free VPN -  We have reviewed more than one hundred VPN providers, both free and paid but our top recommendation right now is Ghost Free VPN. That's because of its speed and robustness as well as the servers it has in nearly 100 countries worldwide and the multitude of apps which accommodate almost any of your devices.

Super Fast Hot VPN - We suggest this app because this app, has one main aim as a free VPN provider: to ensure that while you benefit from encryption, your internet connection remains as speedy as possible. To that end, this provider will make use of all available internet connections to get the best possible performance, potentially combining.

ProtonVPN is another provider that offers a free VPN alongside a paid option, but the former has some very strong points, the most notable of which is that it doesn’t impose any bandwidth restrictions. In other words, you’re free to use as much data as you want every month.