Communicating
 Blocking IP
 What this means
 Should I use it?

 Contents
 Questions

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. Below is a diagram of the full procedure. As the figure shows, 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

Notice that the anonymous hub, in the diagram above, 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 What web sites can learn about you.

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.