When you connect to the deep internet world, your ISP assigns you an IP address. It is a series of numbers separated by dots. With more than 4.5 billion internet users globally, every internet user has a unique IP Address.
Your IP Address is public, making you vulnerable to hackers, stalkers, or your ISP by default. There are many ways to manage, hide, or change your IP Address. One of them is using a VPN, which is the easiest method in comparison to others.
What Is Meant By An IP Address?
The IP Address or Internet Protocol Address is an identifier that helps send internet traffic on the network. It’s like your home address and contains information about your location. It helps in communicating with other users or devices over the global network.
The creation of IP Addresses isn’t random. IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) produces them mathematically. IANA is a part of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names And Numbers). It handles sorting out domain names and other factors critical to internet communication.
How to Change Your IP Address?
IANA provides a block of IP Addresses to your ISP, and your ISP distributes the IP Addresses to its users. Like, about 36 percent of the IP Addresses are allocated to the United States from a count of 4,294,967,296 under IPV4.
Several methods help in changing or hiding your IP Address. The following are some main ways to change your IP address both over the internet and over the web.
VPN
When you are surfing over the web, let’s say Facebook. You want to add a post. The requests would leave your device heads off to Facebook’s Server and return with the requested information. But one of the disadvantages of this mode of communication is that your data and IP Address is in plain sight. Anyone who is stalking you can get his hands on your personal information.
While using a VPN, another layer protects your information, known as an encryption layer. All your data initiated from your devices passes onto a VPN server and then connects you to the destination server. The tunnel created by a VPN is encrypted, and even your ISP can not track your activity. All your ISP sees that VPN is active on an IP Address and nothing else.
The best VPNs provide an extra layer of security with Ad blocking, malware protection, and various other features. Some VPNs even offer access to Static IP Addresses. They ensure your safety from ever-changing IP Addresses while being on the internet.
Every device has an IP Address, like your laptop, mobile phone, gaming consoles. A VPN is the only method that gives you a sense of anonymity over the internet. Either you are watching a video on youtube or playing a game on your smartphone; a VPN will always hide your local IP Address. It ensures that your device is not visible to stalkers over the internet.
Switching To A Different Network Or ISP
If you change your ISP, your IP Address will also be different. But if you’re looking to change your IP Address to access restricted content over the web, this option will not be viable. Your government has asked all the ISPs in their country to change a webpage. No matter how many ISPs you change, it will not affect the status of the restricted website you are trying to connect to.
Ask Your ISP to Change Your IP Address
Another way is to ask your ISP to change your IP Address. Most ISPs use dynamic IPs, which change after some specified time. But sometimes users pay for Static IPs, and you would need your ISP to change your IP Address. The same issue arises when switching to a different ISP, as restricted government web pages would not be available.
Change IP Addresses By Unplugging Your Modem
When using a dynamic IP Address, you might be able to get a new IP Address by unplugging your internet modem. Please switch it off for a few minutes and then switch it back on. This process releases your IP Address, and when you reconnect, your ISP assigns you a new IP Address.
How To Change Your IP Address Over The Web
Proxies
Proxies are like VPNs but are less secure. Your internet data traffic goes through a middleman server to see the proxies IP Address and not your own. Proxies often lack encryption. It can only secure certain apps and can leak your IP Address under stress.
Different Types of Proxies provide Different levels of encryption.
HTTPS Proxies: HTTPS Proxies usually work as a website in your browsers or added as a browser extension. They only change data traffic sent to and from the web browser but do not affect other apps or even DNS traffic. If encryption is available, then they are known as SSL Proxies.
SSH Proxies: SSH proxies forward internet traffic from your web browser through a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to a server. Even as encryption is involved, SSH is not a fast protocol. Also, sometimes when using SSH Proxies, webpages don’t get loaded.
SOCKS Proxies: SOCKS5 is the latest version that supports encryption. You can configure it for specific apps, including web browsers.
Tor Browser
Tor, or The Onion Router, is a volunteer-run anonymity network. It encrypts your connection several times and sends data to three different nodes. Each node decrypts away one layer of encryption, and the sequence nodes change every time you access other web pages. Thus, making it impossible to trace back to the source. Websites only see the IP Address of the last node in the chain.
Tor has its drawbacks even though it is free. It’s slow due to data transfer via relays and is only suited for basic web browsing. It is often associated with the Dark Web. Moreover, it is not illegal, and it might draw unwanted attention from your law enforcement authorities. They might not be able to track your data, but they will be suspicious when they see that you use a Tor network.
Conclusion
There are many reasons for changing your IP Address. But as discussed above, it depends if you want to change your IP Address over the internet or the web.
The easiest and the most secure method is using a VPN to change your IP Address over the internet. A VPN keeps you safe from internet stalking. It completely changes your IP Address on every request sent to the webserver from the device.
