Computer question

[Perth boy]

I'm not that good at the computers so I ask what is the best way to stop people from snooping at what we look at on the internet.

I normaly use INPRIVATE viewing. Is that safe can anyone see what web sites I have been to as other people use my computer from time to time.

 

[Mary Anne PA]

I am not much on computers either, but I have been told using a proxy server prevents tracking. It seems with a proxy server that your web browsing goes through their IP address and not yours. perhaps if you use INPRIVATE as well and delete your cookies it might work?

 

[Perth boy]

I am not much on computers either, but I have been told using a proxy server prevents tracking. It seems with a proxy server that your web browsing goes through their IP address and not yours. perhaps if you use INPRIVATE as well and delete your cookies it might work?

Ok so you know more than me whats a proxy server????

 

[Mary Anne PA]

I am hoping someone will be able to confirm this. If you google free proxy servers you will get some lists of sites. You bring up one of these proxy sites and then enter the web site you want into the space provided, click the 'visit' button and you will get that site, but through the proxy server not directly. If you don't know the site address visit google first.

beware though it seems that you don't always get something for nothing, often it just be a lot of adds.

 

[svengali]

I share my computer so I use Firefox and set the privacy to delete history, temp files and cookies on closing down. You can also buy a cleanup utility which will dump everything else so that only a forensic expert can see where you have been.

 

[Hardwood]

Anonymous proxy servers destroys information about your computer in the requests header. So you can safely surf the net and your information will never be used by hackers and spammers.
More importantly, if you are at work and you want to visit a website such as this one, but you don't want the I.T guys which sites you have visited, use an anonymous proxy server.
Simply go to Proxy Servers - Page 1 of 11 and type the URL into any of the proxy servers listed on that site.

As far as deleting your tracks is concerned - well that is a bit different.
Every time you do a keystroke on your PC, the information is cached (saved) or saved as a "shadow copy".
Even if you delete a document and empty your recycle bin, the document can still be recovered.

As Svengali suggested, there are a number of utilities (both free and for sale) that are available to delete all that information forever.

A great Free utility to use is called Internet Eraser - it is brilliant, easy to install and very easy to use. You can download it here - Free Internet Eraser - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Downloads

 

[DickieWu]

For deleting your tracks, restore pc settings etc. - checkout "Drive Vaccine" or "Deep Freeze"

 

[Perth boy]

Thanks guys for all your help.

 

[thiswayup]

I use "hide my IP" which is awesome for anonymous web surfing, also protects your identity and stop hackers.
Another good programe is file shredder its free and is great for deleting files like bank docs etc, it will shred anything u wish to shred and will also shred the free space on ur harddrive, I do that every few months.