For those of you who think that the internet does an excellent job of protecting your location, think again. You are easily trackable via your IP address which is the digital equivalent of a fingerprint. So bear that in mind the next time you contemplate using a file sharing network. But all is not lost – you can easily surf the net, hiding your real location, using a proxy service.

A proxy service doesn’t have to be for the shady segment of internet users. There are plenty of legitimate uses for a proxy. Perhaps you just don’t like being tracked via your real IP address and wish to remain in the shadows. Or perhaps you like to surf the web at work and your IT department has decided to block your favourite websites. By using a proxy server, you can bypass those restrictions and surf at will.

There are countless proxy servers out there and I can’t possibly test them all. Plus I’m sure these services come and go as often as a wannabe singer on American Idol. So here’s five that I did try and which seemed to work OK. If you have a favourite proxy service, let us know in the comments. Oh and if you know where the proxy service is based, also mention that. It wouldn’t do to tell someone that you are in your beach house in the Seychelles when your IP address says you’re actually in a trailer park in New Mexico.

1. Corpask.com – apparently shows you coming from Texas.

2. MProxy – this one looks interesting. It allows you to remove cookies and scripts as well as encrypting the URL and the cookies.

3. Hide This – Works fine although it asked me for a password when I tried to access one of my websites. Strange.

4. Da Net Surfer – another one that allows you to strip away information such as cookies and scripts.

5. Fox Surf – seems to be no relation to Firefox!