Your IP address is essentially the address that connects your computer to the Internet. It often gets broadcast whenever anyone is using a computer to make it easier to store information to make websites more enjoyable to browse next time. Every computer needs an IP address to connect to the Internet, but not every computer needs to broadcast it to other sites. People can sometimes figure out where the computer is physically from the IP address. This could result in problems for people who care a lot about their privacy, such as journalists working in a territory that doesn't have free press or people who want to remain anonymous online. Luckily, it is fairly easy to keep your IP address while hiding it from the rest of the Internet. Here are some tips for hiding your IP address.

1. Use a Virtual Private Network

Your first option is to use a virtual private network to hide your IP address so that any website that you contact never actually sees it. Normally, your computer asks a website for something and the website sends it back, relying on your IP address to know where to send everything. At this point, your IP address is exposed and people can intercept your traffic and look at your address. You can avoid this by using a virtual private network, or VPN, which adds a middleman to the equation. The VPN will create an encrypted tunnel between your computer and the website, hiding your IP address from people who would want to see it but still allowing the website to return information to you.

2. Spoof Your IP Address

Another option is to spoof your IP address. This means it makes your computer look as though it has an IP address that it really doesn't have. This will still allow websites and web services to give you the information that you need, but it will just appear that they are sending it elsewhere. You can spoof your IP address by using one of the many services on the Internet that allow you to do so. As a bonus, you can get IP addresses that are usually associated with different countries to be able to unlock content on streaming services if it is not available in the United States.

3. Use the Onion Router

Finally, you can use Tor, or the The Onion Router, to send your IP address through many different computers when you request for something from a website, and then have the information take an indirect route back. This will make it difficult to discern which of the many IP addresses is actually yours.

For more information, talk to a company that specializes in IP addresses.