If you wouldn’t want everyone in the world to know your home address, then why would you want them to know your IP, or Internet Protocol, address? A good way to keep your personal information and internet activity private is to consider whether you want to hide your IP address with a VPN.

While you might rarely think about it, your IP address could be revealing a lot more about you than you would imagine.

We recommend ExpressVPN as the best way to hide your IP address.

Your IP address can give away all of your internet habits, searches, and even where you live? It can reveal what movies you’ve been watching, what you’ve been downloading, and your Google searches. You could leave yourself vulnerable to cyber criminals, or even at risk of prosecution from authorities.

But, there is a way to mask your IP address by using a VPN as an IP blocker so you can regain your privacy. Here, we take you through why you will want to block your IP address and how to do this by using a VPN as an IP blocker.

What is a VPN?

First of all, if you aren’t familiar with the term and how it works, what is a VPN, or Virtual Private Network?

The most important thing to understand about a VPN is that it secures your internet connection to ensure that everything you are looking at, sending and receiving is encrypted and kept secure from prying eyes.

Rather than browsing the internet as you would normally, you simply connect to a VPN server anywhere across the world, meaning your traffic goes through your VPN provider’s server, keeping you safe, protected, and giving you a greater choice of content from across the world.

6 Reasons to Hide Your IP Address

It’s little wonder that many people feel uncomfortable at the thought of strangers or authorities being able to trace their internet activity.

Here are just some reasons why you will want to block your IP address.

Hide your location

You might want to hide your geographical location, not just because of privacy or safety concerns, but also to give yourself greater freedom online.

The country or region where you live or work could have restrictions on what you can access. Using a VPN can enable you to browse content you could otherwise have been banned from watching.

More choice on Netflix

For instance, if you live or work in Europe, you may want to hide your IP address so you can effectively pretend to be somewhere else.

By using a VPN, all of your internet traffic is directed through your VPN provider’s servers. So, you could be sitting in a cafe in Spain and connect to a server in the US so you can watch US Netflix.

Hide your online activities from authorities

Not only could your online activities be restricted by your location, but also by governments or local authorities.

For instance, in some countries, you can’t view sexual or LGBT content, or websites involving gambling.

By routing your online traffic through another server rather than your own IP address you can get around this without the authorities finding out what you’ve been looking at.

Get around firewalls at university or work

Unsurprisingly, many colleges, universities and workplaces don’t want you having access to certain content. They might not want you getting distracted by online gaming.

However, if you hide your IP address with a VPN you can get around these restrictions and play the likes of League of Legends or World of Warcraft in your break.

Protect your privacy when using Wi-Fi hotspots

As many of us use our smartphones to surf the internet, we often take advantage of Wi-Fi hotspots in cafes or other public places.

But this could leave you wide open to hackers looking to steal your personal passwords and other information. If you hide your IP address you can be sure that you can carry out activities such as online banking without worrying falling victim to hackers.

Prevent targeted attacks on your IP address

Denial of service attacks (or DDoS attacks) specifically target your IP address to disrupt your internet access. By using a VPN to block your IP address, you can route your internet traffic through the VPN provider’s servers, protecting yourself from any attacks.

How to hide your IP address

If all of that has convinced you that it would be a good idea to block your IP address, the next question is, what is the best way to hide your IP address?

The good news is there is a simple solution. The best way is to use a VPN as an IP blocker.

A VPN creates a secure connection between your own personal IP address and the VPN company’s servers, which have their own IP addresses.

Instead of your own computer or device directly contacting a website, leaving traceable history of what you’ve been looking at, watching and searching for, the information will instead be sent through the VPN’s servers.

Anyone looking for your IP address will only see the VPN’s IP address instead. Not only that, but if you choose the right VPN provider, that is all that will be visible. There will be no records of your online activity.

Choose the Best IP Blocker VPN

While a VPN offers the easiest, most effective way to hide your IP address, not all VPNs are created equal.

You will need to consider a number of factors when choosing the best VPN provider to hide your IP address.

Choice of servers

Make sure the VPN provider you choose has servers based around the world. That way, you can watch what you want, when you want, where you want. You could be in China but watch US Netflix, or be visiting Mexico on vacation but still keep up with your favorite shows in the UK on BBC iPlayer.

Tough security

One of the main reasons to block your IP address is to keep all of your personal data safe.

You’ll want to make sure that your VPN provider has tough security measures in place, including a kill switch so that if your VPN connection does unexpectedly drop out, your online behaviour will not suddenly be revealed.

Fast speeds

Just because you are connecting through a VPN, you will want to make sure that your internet speed at least remains the same, or actually improves.

Unlimited bandwidth

As well as not wanting to compromise on speed, you will want to ensure that the VPN provider you choose offers unlimited bandwidth, so that you can share and download any material you want to, whether movies, games or sensitive data you need for work.

Compatibility

Check that your VPN provider is compatible with iOS or any other system, or device, you will be using.

5 Best VPNs to Block Your IP Address

There are so many VPNs on the market that it can be hard to know where to start when looking for the best IP blocker VPN.

Here are the 5 best VPNs to mask your IP address:

#1 ExpressVPN

Express VPN is often seen as the best solution to hide your IP address, and with good reason.

This is a provider which packs a big punch, both in terms of geographic reach and security.

It has servers in 145 cities across the world, so you can connect to the location best suited to the content you want to access.

Plus, there are stringent security features, including high-level 256-bit encryption, a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and zero logs to keep your online activities private.

There’s also high speeds and no throttling or bandwidth limits. Not only that, but Express VPN should be compatible with any device or operating system, including Apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android.

You can also use Express VPN with three devices at once.

• Express VPN costs $12.95 per month, but the price goes down to $9.99 per month if you take a six-month plan, and $6.67 for 12 months as you get three months free. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee if you want to try before you commit.

#2 NordVPN

Nord VPN is another good option to consider to hide your IP address. This IPN provider has a reputation for being one of the most security conscious options on the market.

There’s double encryption to mask your IP address along with your internet browsing, as well as a kill switch to make sure that anything you are busy doing online is not suddenly made public if your VPN connection does suddenly drop out.

Another stringent security feature is DNS leak protection.

There are fast speeds, no throttling and unlimited bandwidth, making this a useful tool if you want to hide your IP address while still being able to engage in torrenting and P2P file sharing.

• NordVPN is slightly cheaper in price compared to to ExpressVPN, with the cost set at $11.95 per month, going down to $5.75 per month if you take out a one-year plan, and $3.29 per month for two years. It also has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

#3 HideMyAss

If you want a vast choice of servers to connect to from across the world, then HideMyAss could be the best IP Blocker VPN for you.

It has servers in almost 200 countries, so you can be on one side of the world, but choose to connect to a server on the other side of the planet.

There are also strong security measures and encryption to make sure that you are protected from the prying eyes of hackers or authorities. It is compatible with iOS, Android, Mac and Windows.

• Similar in price to other VPN providers on the list, HideMyAss costs $11.52 per month, but the cost reduces to $8.33 per month for six months, and $6.56 per month for a one-year plan. There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee.

#4 SaferVPN

With a name like Safer VPN, it’s no surprise that Safer VPN is a good option for keeping your personal details and your browsing habits safe and secure.

Safer VPN provides a safe way to block your IP address with 256-bit encryption, a kill switch, and a zero logs policy, so your browsing history is not kept on file anywhere.

• Prices are $9.99 for one month, or $3.39 per month if you take a one-year plan, and just $2.99 for two years, making it one of the cheapest options on the market without going down the risky route of opting for a free VPN. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee.

#5 PrivateVPN

Private VPN is one of the best options on the market if you are searching for a provider to give you fast and unthrottled internet, while also making sure that you can hide your IP address with a range of high-level security features.

It has DNS leak protection to keep you safe and, although it has a smaller geographic reach than some providers, it still has servers in some 40 countries, meaning you have a choice of where you connect.

• Private VPN is one of the more affordable VPN providers out there, with prices at $8.21 per month, or $5.63 a month for three months. If you take out a one-year plan, it costs $4.15 per month, and there is a 30-day, money-back guarantee.

How to Hide Your IP Address with a VPN

Now that you’ve chosen a recommended VPN provider, how do you get started and make sure that you block your IP address?

The steps are simple…

1. Sign up for the VPN provider of your choice
2. Download the app onto your device
3. Connect to the server location of your choice
4. Browse online anywhere safe in the knowledge that you have safely managed to mask your IP address.

Using a Free VPN?

A VPN offers the easiest solution to the question of how to hide your IP address. But, it is it a good idea to choose a free VPN? Of course, choosing the free option can seem attractive.

However, free VPNs often have slow internet speeds, a low ceiling on how much you can download, and poor security features.

More worryingly, the way free VPNs make their money is usually to keep logs of your data and your browsing habits to sell onto companies, third parties and advertisers.

That means that while you may have opted for a free VPN in a bid to hide your IP address, your details really won’t be private at all!

Bottom Line

If you really believe in internet freedom, and in keeping yourself safe online, the only way to do that is by hiding your IP address.

By far the easiest method is to choose the best IP Blocker VPN by making sure you opt for a provider which allows you to connect anywhere, while keeping all of your personal data and browsing history totally private.

Paying a little for a subscription to a reputable VPN provider is worth it for the peace of mind, the freedom, privacy, and the extra content you will buy yourself!

Our recommendation for the best VPN to unblock your IP address is ExpressVPN.