Surf Anonymously
Whenever you go online through an ISP the computers on the 'net that you connect to can see your IP Address. If someone wanted information about you they could go to your ISP to obtain it, of course they would theoretically have to have a legal right to the information and a search warrent, but who wants to take chances? There are a few ways to defeat this.
1. Use a proxy server such as Anonymizer .
2. Use a free ISP such as NetZero. You could give them an alias instead of your real info.
3. Use a prepaid ISP like prepaid phone cards you can get these at places like Staples, I haven't tried these but the one I looked at said you didn't have to register it.
If you choose one of the latter two options I suggest you still you a proxy! Be twice as safe!
Clear History
Internet Explorers History feature not only keeps track of what websites you've visited but also what folders and files you have accessed from you machine.
Open Internet Explorer, click the Tools Menu, and select Internet Options. On the General tab of the resulting window look for the History section, here you can select how many days to keep files in your History folder, there is also a button to clear you any files that are currently in you history folder. Installing Tweak UI (below) will allow you to automatically remove any history files when you log off.Clear typed URL history
Any time you type a command in the Run dialogue box from the Start Menu, type an URL in Internet Explorer, or open a document, Windows logs it and will display it in the appropriate dialogue box / text area, whenever someone types in any part of the previously typed information. This can really save you time by making it necessary to type only a partial command or Url, and making recently opened documents readily available from the Start Menu. The downside is that anyone can see what documents you've opened lately, even if you thought you had them buried deep inside some obscure folder. Also they could open I.E. and see what Urls you've recently typed. I'm not sure how you can manually overcome this problem but there is great news. if you have Windows 98 then you already have a free application that will clear these items every time you log off of / shut down your computer. It's called TweakUI and here's what you do to use it.
Put your Windows 98 setup disk in your CDROM drive. Wait for a window to pop up, select Browse this CD, and another window will pop up. In this window double click on the Tools folder, next double click the Reskit folder, do the same for the Powertoy folder. Now look for a file named tweakui.inf, right click this file and select Install from the pop up menu. You are now ready to use your new program, go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, and double click on TweakUI, now you have a lot of options for customizing your Windows experience. The one we're most interested in here is on the Paranoia tab, where you can select to have TweakUI dump your history files including your Internet History.
Clear Cache
Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and select Disc Cleanup. This will delete the files stored in your Cache folders, but not necesarilly your cookies, nor does it permanently remove the files. Frequently wype your hard drive to keep these files from being recovered.. You can get a program that will manage these for you or you can delete them manually.
The following instructions are for a typical Windows 98 installation, the location of your folders may vary, but this should get you close.
Open Start, Programs, Windows Explorer. In the left hand pane look for the Windows folder, click the plus sign (+) next to the folder to show it's contents. Now look for a folder called Temporary Internet Files, click the plus sign next to it. Inside this folder is one called Content.IE5 or something similar. Expand this folder and you will see several folders with random names such as 25ffssd6565w. Inside these randomly named folders are your cookies. Browse them and delete any files you don't want. Be careful though there mey be some cookies you want to keep.
Cookies
Cookies are very small text files that are placed on your computer by many websites. There is much debate as to the value and risk of cookies. Cookies many times contain personal information that you have entered at websites, this information can usually only be read by the site that places it on your machine. However some sites use a seperate company to generate and monitor their cookies and this does pose a security risk, because conceivably your information from one site could get compiled with information from a nother site, thus elliminating anonymity.
There are a few things you can do.
1. You can disable cookies all together, completely removing any risk from cookies. The downside of this is many websites won't let you in if you disable cookies.
2. Use cookie managing software. There are many programs available on the web, the free ones usually end up making you look at adds or send you commercial emails.
3. Manage your own cookies.
Open Windows Explorer, go to Windows/Cookies and delete any cookies you want. Be careful though not to delete any cookies you want to keep. Be sure to empty your Recycle Bin, and wype your hard drive when you're done.
4. Use a proxy server such as Anonymizer. A proxy server acts as a buffer between the web and your ISP to fool website into thinking that you are surfing from a different server and mask your IP address. The better proxys also store your cookies on their hard drives for you and let you set different settings for what information you want to give to which sites. You may have to pay for the more advanced features
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