Anonymous Surfing, web browsing and proxy software
Surf and browse the web safely with anonymous proxy servers automatically
GhostSurf Pro has a whole host of neat anonymous surfing, web browsing and anonymous proxy features. This is a list of some of the main areas and how they work to protect your privacy while you browse the net.
GhostSurf protects you from being watched by your ISP and by the websites you visit by sending your personal information through anonymous hubs located around the world. To your ISP, it looks like you're visiting the hubs when you're really visiting other sites. To the sites, it looks like the hubs are visiting them. This keeps sites and your ISP from tracking you, selling (or otherwise sharing) your preferences and habits with other entities.
Introduction
When you surf the web, information accumulates on your computer that web
site owners, and other people who share your computer, can use to learn
a lot about you. They may know what your name is, they might even know
where you live. They probably know what items you've bought on the Internet,
and very likely they know what web sites you visit. Most people don't
want strangers (and companies) on the Internet to know so much about them,
especially without their consent. And some people don't want their co-workers,
friends or family members to see where they've been. Fortunately, it's
not very hard to protect your privacy online. You just need to know what
to do.
What's at Stake
Many people who use the Internet fear that, if they purchase something,
their credit card will be stolen. This almost never happens; banks use
very secure systems to protect purchases online. Your far more likely
to have your credit card (or the relevant data) stolen in the real world.
People also worry about privacy abuses that cannot happen.
When you visit a web
site, the owner of the site can install a little tag on your computer,
called a "cookie," that allows him to identify you when you return. This
isn't such a bad thing as it stands; all the web site owner knows about
you is whether or not you've visited before. But cookies can also be abused
by web owners. Without going into detail, it is possible for web site
owners to use cookies to see what other web sites you've visited, and
even information you've entered into those sites. Whenever you type anything
into a web site, whether it be a question into a search engine or an address
for a purchase, that information may be stored in a cookie and, in turn,
seen by any other web site you visit. Secure information is never stored
in cookies, like credit card numbers for example. But any non-secure information
can, and very well may be.
Other than cookies, web site owners have one other tool to learn about
you. Whenever you're on the Internet, your computer gets its own address,
called an IP number. The Internet works a lot like the real world: if
you want to send real mail to someone, you use his mailing address that
tells you where in the country he lives; on the Internet it's very similar.
Your Internet address says a little about where you are, because it says
from where you're coming. If you're an AOL user, your Internet address
ends in (aol.com). If you're a Harvard student, it ends in (harvard.edu).
But Internet addresses aren't really used by web site owners, because
they don't usually convey much information. If your Internet address is
(fred3478.aol.com), that tells the web site owner absolutely nothing about
you except that you're one of 10 million AOL users. And on top of that,
most people's Internet addresses change each time they connect to the
Internet. So the address can't even be used to identify you the next time
you visit; your address probably changed.
So cookies can be abused far more than your IP addresses. Internet addresses
don't really pose much of a problem. Cookies, on the other hand, contain
information about what web sites you've visited and anything you've typed
into those web sites. To be safe, you should assume that every web site
in the world knows about all the other sites you've surfed, and everything
you've typed in. And if you're not happy with that, you'll have to turn
cookies off. This is described in the next section.
There's one more concern for people using the Internet, however. For your
convenience, your web browser stores a history of sites you've visited
and makes it easy for you to see this history; it's supposed to help you
get back to a site you liked. But you may not want other people to have
such easy access to your browsing history. Browsers also store histories
of the information you type into web pages too, that will actually pop
up when you visit that page. Oftentimes you don't want co-workers or friends
to see your home address, for example, but your browser will pop it up
right in front of them. There is a way to turn both of these features
off too, described in the fourth section.
Keeping your Identity private while browsing the Web
As described in the previous section, there are two potential sources
of information about you when you surf the web: cookies and Internet addresses.
If you block both of these, it's impossible for a web site owner to know
anything personal about you.
The first and most important concern is cookies, because that's where
any valuable and interesting information may be stored. You can turn cookies
off in your browser by using its settings, or you can install GhostSurf
which will do all this for you automatically, and also police your browser
to make sure it's really not storing anything in cookies. This is a single,
simple step that eliminates almost all the privacy problems on the web.
The second concern is the Internet address. Since this is very important
to the way the Internet works, it's impossible to turn Internet addresses
off. You have to work around them by sending all your information through
a different computer. This other computer will have a different Internet
address, of course, so when your information comes out it looks like it's
coming from somewhere else. You can do this by finding an anonymous CERN
proxy server on the web and configuring your browser to use it, or you
can install GhostSurf, which will do this for you automatically, in addition
to finding the fastest and most reliable proxy server or "hub"
for you. There is one important note of caution however: since you're
sending everything through another computer somewhere else in the world,
your Internet connection may slow down. And if that computer gets shut
down, your Internet connection will cease to work until you switch to
another one. GhostSurf makes switching easy, but it's still something
to think about. And when weighed against the benefit, which is relatively
small, blocking your Internet address is usually not worth the cost. If
you're using a big Internet Service Provider, like AOL or MediaOne or
EarthLink or NetZero, or anyone with more than 100,000 customers, it's
almost certainly not worth it. If you're one of 100,000 or more, you're
pretty anonymous already.
Keeping Your Surfing from People who use your Computer
As mentioned earlier, web browsers try to make it as easy as possible
for users to see where they've been and what they've typed; it saves them
time and frustration. But at the same time it shows everyone else who
uses that computer everything that has gone on there. Many people consider
this to be a violation of their privacy.
Fortunately, just like with cookies, there are easy ways to solve these
problems. You can turn all the history features off in your browser by
reading the documentation. There are probably a number of features you'll
have to turn off, so there may be some research work involved here. The
main ones you should look for are just "History" and "AutoComplete." Any
history features will keep a list of the sites you've visited. AutoComplete
fills in boxes with things you've typed before. So when AutoComplete is
on, for example, anyone can see what you've searched for and any other
information you enter into web sites. You should also turn off the temporary
storage or "caching" features of your web browser, because they will store
copies of all the pages you visit on your computer, clearly visible to
other users.
Alternatively, you can use GhostSurf to do all this for you. It automatically
takes care of all the features that store information on your computer,
and even gives you the ability to forcibly flush this information out
if you. This keeps browsers from mistakenly leaving information on your
computer that others could see.
The Problem
Anonymous hubs provide a valuable service; when your data goes through them, websites cannot see who sent it. Anonymous hubs can also confuse your ISP, if it is trying to track your surfing habits. Unfortunately, this comes at a price. Anonymous hubs can slow down at peak usage times; they even sometimes become inactive. And ultimately, sending your information through an intermediary (the anonymous hub) is never as efficient as sending it directly to the intended recipient (the website).
GhostSurf's anonymous hubs window gives you some control over these problems. You can time the hubs to find the fastest ones, remove broken ones, and select the ones you want to use. But even the fastest ones may slow down periodically as traffic patterns change on the Internet; sometimes your information may not get through. GhostSurf's "blast transfer" feature is designed to solve this problem. With blast transfer, your anonymous Internet connection can be fast and reliable, sometimes even faster than your normal, direct connection.
The Solution
Normally, when you visit a website, your computer sends a request for that website's contents to the website itself, and waits for the response. When the response comes, it displays the page it has received on your computer's screen. Alternatively, when you're using anonymous hubs, your computer sends the request to the anonymous hub first. It then waits for the response. The request goes through the anonymous hub to the website; the website's response is sent back to the anonymous hub (because it doesn't know who or where you are) and it is then forwarded back to your computer by the anonymous hub.
Blast transfer changes this slightly. Rather than sending your request to one anonymous hub and waiting for the response, it sends your request to many anonymous hubs and waits for the first response. This solves two problems - slow anonymous hubs, and faulty anonymous hubs. If, for example, you're not using blast transfer and your anonymous hub is slow, your request will take a long time to reach the destination website; it'll take a long time for the response to reach you too. If the anonymous hub you're using is broken, your request will never reach the destination website; you'll never get a response. On the other hand, if you're using blast transfer, some of the anonymous hubs can be slow or broken; it doesn't matter. When your request is sent out to many hubs, only one needs to be fast and responsive. If you're using five hubs, the odds are much better that you'll get a quick response than if you're using one hub.
Setting it Up
You can turn on the blast transfer feature in the Options window, and you can instruct GhostSurf to use a certain number of hubs at once. Again, the more hubs you use at once the more reliable (and faster) your anonymous connection will be, but the heavier the load on your Internet connection. We recommend between 2 and 5 for this setting.
In the anonymous hubs window, select more than one hub to use. If you select 10 hubs in this window and have blast transfer use 5 hubs at once, GhostSurf will choose 5 of the 10 you have selected at each request. If, on the other hand, you choose fewer hubs than you would like to use at once, GhostSurf will just use all the ones you've chosen. Make sure you choose only the fastest hubs; this will improve your chances of maximum speed.
Managing
anonymous proxy hubs
Communicating with a Web Site
Anonymous hubs prevent web sites from seeing your Internet (IP) address
when you send information to them. When you visit a web site, your computer
sends a request for information to the web site. Part of that request
is your Internet address. Since the recipient web site needs to know where
to send the response, it is necessary to include your Internet address
with the request. Below is a diagram of a "request packet," the information
your computer sends to a web site when you visit it with your web browser.
The web site responds with a "response packet," a similar structure with
its address and the requested information. The whole process is pictured
below.
As aforementioned, it is necessary to transmit your computer's location
so the destination website knows where to send the requested information.
Anonymous hubs serve as intermediary entities, stripping your computer's
address from the request packet.
Blocking your Address
Anonymous hubs sit between your computer and the destination website,
filtering your address out of request packets so they can't reach the
website. Your request packet (with your address and your request) is sent
to the anonymous hub. The hub sends your request on, but replaces your
address with its own. The website responds normally, sending the requested
information to the computer that requested it (in this case, the anonymous
hub). The hub then forwards this information back to your computer.
To your
computer, the anonymous hub looks just like the website. You send your
address and your request, and you get the requested data back with the
site's address. But your information doesn't reach the website as it would
otherwise. To the website, all your visits look like they originate from
the anonymous hub. The anonymous hub is, in some sense, your "agent" on
the Internet--it gets everything you request. It's an anonymous hub because
it doesn't reveal your identity when it gets information for you.
What it Really Blocks
The anonymous hub does not modify your request, it only removes your address.
So the website still knows what you're requesting, it just doesn't know
who you are.
Unfortunately, that's not the whole story. Websites can ask for personal
information in your request. So even though the anonymous hub blocks your
address, your computer may embed personal information in the request.
This is the biggest source of privacy violations. Your Internet address
is nothing more than the Internet name of your computer. It may contain
the name of your ISP (Internet Service Provider), but it doesn't reveal
any real personal information.
Although anonymous hubs cannot filter your requests to remove personal
information, GhostSurf can. To learn more about GhostSurf's blocking features,
please read the Guide to Online Privacy.
Should I Use Anonymous Hubs?
You don't need to use anonymous hubs to protect your privacy online. They
provide an extra level of security that protects you from hacker attacks
and keeps your ISP from monitoring you. In light of recent online privacy
violations both by websites and ISP's, you may wish to consider using
GhostSurf's anonymous hubs option.
The major
benefits of using anonymous hubs are: -
Web sites don't know your address, and therefore cannot attack your computer
or identify it over different visits.
Your ISP doesn't know where you surf; to your ISP it looks like you visit the anonymous hub over and over again.
The primary
drawbacks of using anonymous hubs are: -
Not as reliable as a direct connection. If your anonymous hub goes down,
you'll have to switch to another one. GhostSurf does this automatically,
but it can momentarily interrupt your connection.
May be slower; your traffic has to go through the anonymous hub before reaching the website. This extra jump may add some time to your waiting for pages and images to load.
Ads are not only annoying, they often are used to violate your privacy and they account for a significant amount of the time in loading pages. GhostSurf can block ads both in pages and ads that pop-up on your screen. Without ads, pages often load much faster and, of course, are less annoying.
As you use your computer you leave a trail of personal information. Temporary files show which sites you've visited, menus in Windows show what files you've opened. GhostSurf can clean these repositories so that other users cannot gather the information stored there. And GhostSurf can "scrub" deleted files so they cannot be undeleted.
Spyware is a glaring violation of your privacy. Many freeware products silently watch you as you surf the web and then report your browsing habits back to their parent companies. GhostSurf can scan your memory, hard drive and system registry for spyware and remove it when found. An extensive backup system allows you to undo any changes that GhostSurf makes to your system with a single click.
GhostSurf offers an anonymous e-mail facility--using this, you can send e-mail from anyone to anyone. It works just like a regular e-mail client, except that you get to enter the "From" address as whatever you like. GhostSurf's anonymous e-mail system works with ISP's which block SMTP transmissions as well, by routing the mail through your own ISP.
With one copy of GhostSurf you can anonymize many people's Internet experiences using GhostSurf's multi-user mode. If they configure their browsers to send their information through GhostSurf on your computer, they will instantly get all the benefits of GhostSurf.
GhostSurf lets you associate sounds with its various actions, like clearing temporary files or downloading anonymous hubs. You can mute all the sounds if you don't want to hear them, and alternatively can set the sounds to whatever you want.
GhostSurf is designed to be flexible and compatible. It has been tested with a large variety of ISPs and browsers. Because it works like a regular proxy server, any HTTP-compatible browser should be able to connect to it. GhostSurf supports HTTP tunneling as well.
GhostSurf is designed for everyone from the advanced programmer to the home novice. Pursuant to this, GhostSurf comes with extensive articles on how to use its features in your own work and play, as well as "instant help" in all the major windows. The instant help appears at the bottom of the window as your mouse moves over the items in the window, describing the active item and how it's used. You can read the full help now if you like as well.
System requirements
- Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 or XP
- Pentium 133MHz or better
- 32 MB RAM
- 16 MB hard disk space
- Internet connection
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