Your public IP address is sort of like a street address; it's a unique string of numbers assigned by your internet service provider to identify your home internet network. In addition to your home ...

With a typical shared VPN connection, many users are all connected to a server with the same IP address. A dedicated IP address on the other hand, is a fixed IP that is used only by you.

While they hide your IP address, your data is still visible to your ISP, hackers, or anyone monitoring your connection. This makes proxies unsuitable for tasks involving sensitive information.

Unlike a VPN, a large pool of proxies makes access to web data virtually block-free, even if a large amount of requests are generated from the same IP addresses.

The more your IP stays static, as it often does on home Wi-Fi, the easier it is to tie that location to you. A good VPN replaces your real IP address with one from a different city or country.

Using a VPN changes your IP address based on the location you select. This is a great way to distance yourself from hackers and be harder to track. But what's even harder to trace than one spoofed ...