_Oz
Chrono Cadet
Something that may come in handy during any age with computers, is "how would I go about covering my tracks?"
There is a footprint that we all leave online. Pieces of information that can be used to track you down, if someone is determined enough.
--You can never 100% get rid of your footprint, but you can minimize it in such a way that your chances of being found are much lower.
If this is something people are interested in, I might make this a series.
For now I'll discuss what someone would do if they knew absolutely nothing & wanted to start being more private / secure online.
Internet Basics - VPN
To send and receive communications on computers they must have a reachable address. This true for internal (local) networks & external networks like the internet.
For the most part your home devices will all have their own private / internal IP addresses. Private IPs are unreachable from the internet, and most often in the Class C (192.168.X.X) or Class A (10.X.X.X) range. I won't go into much detail on private addressing unless there's any questions. Home routers do a decent job of this on their own.
Once you try to access the internet there must be a Public Address.
There are several websites out there that will tell you your public address, such as https://www.whatsmyip.org/ <-- Take notice of what kind of information is identifiable.
An unsecure IP can be traced to a geographic location & Internet Service Provider (see https://www.iplocation.net/ for example). Those two in conjunction significantly narrow down the location of a given individual--so your job is to do your best NOT to make it that easy for strangers to follow you. The very first step is masking that IP, which is where VPN comes in.
What is a VPN?
Think of your home network as an island in an ocean on the internet & all websites like other islands. To get to any other island (like TTI), you'd have to sail or swim through the waters. Those waters are the internet, which has a certain flow to it. If you have no worries & don't care, the internet does a decent job of carrying your information back and forth where it needs to go--but you're opening yourself up to shark attacks or ships scooping you up.
What you need is an underwater tunnel or a bridge
A VPN at the very least will mask your public address, so it's just a little bit harder to trace back to you.
You can make yourself appear to an outside observer that you're in Florida, or Atlanta, or California, or Berlin, or Moscow, or really anywhere that you wish to have people look for you that isn't your actual location. Metaphorically it's as if you're walking through the forest & dusting your footprints behind you. This does of course make things load a little slower, but it's a small price to pay for additional anonymity.
Where to get VPN?
There are several websites out there that offer services. The two off the top of my head I'd recommend are IPVanish or Nord VPN
There are MANY MANY MORE VPNs out there, which you can find better and better ones over time---but you've gotta start somewhere.
Hope this helps!
-Oz
There is a footprint that we all leave online. Pieces of information that can be used to track you down, if someone is determined enough.
--You can never 100% get rid of your footprint, but you can minimize it in such a way that your chances of being found are much lower.
If this is something people are interested in, I might make this a series.
For now I'll discuss what someone would do if they knew absolutely nothing & wanted to start being more private / secure online.
Internet Basics - VPN
To send and receive communications on computers they must have a reachable address. This true for internal (local) networks & external networks like the internet.
For the most part your home devices will all have their own private / internal IP addresses. Private IPs are unreachable from the internet, and most often in the Class C (192.168.X.X) or Class A (10.X.X.X) range. I won't go into much detail on private addressing unless there's any questions. Home routers do a decent job of this on their own.
Once you try to access the internet there must be a Public Address.
There are several websites out there that will tell you your public address, such as https://www.whatsmyip.org/ <-- Take notice of what kind of information is identifiable.
An unsecure IP can be traced to a geographic location & Internet Service Provider (see https://www.iplocation.net/ for example). Those two in conjunction significantly narrow down the location of a given individual--so your job is to do your best NOT to make it that easy for strangers to follow you. The very first step is masking that IP, which is where VPN comes in.
What is a VPN?
Think of your home network as an island in an ocean on the internet & all websites like other islands. To get to any other island (like TTI), you'd have to sail or swim through the waters. Those waters are the internet, which has a certain flow to it. If you have no worries & don't care, the internet does a decent job of carrying your information back and forth where it needs to go--but you're opening yourself up to shark attacks or ships scooping you up.
What you need is an underwater tunnel or a bridge
A VPN at the very least will mask your public address, so it's just a little bit harder to trace back to you.
You can make yourself appear to an outside observer that you're in Florida, or Atlanta, or California, or Berlin, or Moscow, or really anywhere that you wish to have people look for you that isn't your actual location. Metaphorically it's as if you're walking through the forest & dusting your footprints behind you. This does of course make things load a little slower, but it's a small price to pay for additional anonymity.
Where to get VPN?
There are several websites out there that offer services. The two off the top of my head I'd recommend are IPVanish or Nord VPN
There are MANY MANY MORE VPNs out there, which you can find better and better ones over time---but you've gotta start somewhere.
Hope this helps!
-Oz
