Tips for anonymous browsing...

If you are worried about someone discovering that you have been looking at this website, there are a number of things you can do to hide your tracks and increase your security. These relate to:

Browser History

Internet Cache

Cookies

Email

First, it is important to stress that the only way to be certain that someone won't find out what web pages you have been viewing is to use a computer which they do not have access to (e.g. at a friend's house, a local library or an internet cafe).

However, if you can only use your home computer, then the steps below will greatly reduce (but not eradicate) the possibility of your website usage being traced. (Methods refer to Microsoft Windows)

Browser History

The browser history keeps a temporary record of all the websites and pages you've looked at over a period of time. To prevent anyone else from seeing what sites you've looked at, you will need to remove certain website listings from the browser's history (just the listings relating to websites that you do not wish someone else to know you've visited.)

For Internet Explorer users:

• Select 'View' from the menu bar.
• Highlight 'Explorer' bar.
• Select 'History'.
• A panel will appear on the left hand side of the window. Select the item you wish to delete.
• Right click on the selected folder and select 'Delete'.

For Netscape 6 users:

• Select 'Tasks' from the menu bar.
• Highlight 'Tools'.
• Open the folder in which you wish to delete an item.
• Open the 'Sites' folder.
• Select an item in the folder you wish to delete.
• From the menu bar, select 'Edit'.
• Select 'Delete entire domain'.

Note: If you carry out the above steps correctly, there will be no signs that anything has changed. Be careful not to delete the entire history, as there is a risk that other users will notice that their history has been cleared.

Internet Cache

The internet cache is a file that stores parts of web pages on the hard drive of your computer, for easier accessibility and shorter download times. It is possible that someone could see which websites you have visited by looking at your cache file. You can empty your cache file in your browser settings:

For Internet Explorer users:

• Select 'Tools' from the menu bar.
• Select 'Internet Options'.
• Under the 'General' tab, look for 'Temporary Internet Files'.
• Click on 'Delete Files'.
• Select the checkbox for 'Delete All Offline Content' and click OK.
• Click OK once more to return to your browser.
  

For Netscape users:

• Select 'Edit' from the menu bar.
• Select 'Preferences'
• From the 'Advanced' menu, select 'Cache'.
• Click once on the button marked 'Clear Memory Cache'.
• Click once on the button marked 'Clear Disk Cache'.
• Click OK to return to your browser.

For users of older versions of Netscape:

• Pull down the 'Options' menu.
• On the 'General' page, under 'Temporary Internet Files', click on 'Delete Files'.
  

For AOL users:

• Go to 'Start' - 'Programs' - 'AOL' - 'AOL System Information'.
• Click 'Utilities' at the top of the window.
• Click 'Clear Browser Cache'. The current cache size will change to 0KB.
• Close the 'AOL System Information' window by clicking the 'X' in the top right hand corner of the window.
• Connect to AOL to see if this has solved the problem. If not, try the following method.

If 'AOL System Information' is not listed in the Programs menu:

• Sign on to AOL as normal
• Go to AOL keyword: Preferences
• Click 'Internet Properties' (www) - this will open the Internet Options window.
• Click 'Delete Files' then click OK to delete your temporary internet files.
• Now click OK to close the Internet Options window.

Note: Few internet users know the precise location of the 'Temporary Internet Files' folder. However if someone does happen to look at it and notices that it's empty, they may find this unusual and become suspicious. However, the chances of this happening are small.

Cookies

Cookies are small bits of code left behind by websites to store commonly requested information. For instance, when you click on a checkbox that says 'Save my login details', a cookie is written to your computer's hard drive that can be called upon the next time you visit the site, thus preventing you from having to manually type in your login details again.

It is not advisable to delete all your cookies, because if you do, then all your browser's stored passwords, user details and preferences from various sites will be removed and all this information will have to be re-entered. This change would then become obvious to anyone else who used the computer.

It is better to delete only the cookies from website that you want kept secret. These cookies will need to be removed after every visit to such a site.

Note: not all browsers allow you to delete a single cookie.

For Internet Explorer users:

• Select 'Tools' from the menu bar.
• Select 'Internet Options'.
• Under the 'General' tab, look for 'Temporary Internet Files'.
• Click on 'Settings'.
• Click on 'View Files'. A list of cookies will appear.
• Select the cookie you wish to delete.
• Right-mouse click and select 'Delete'.

For Netscape 6 users:

• Select 'Edit' from the menu bar.
• Select 'Preferences'.
• Under 'Privacy and Security' select 'Cookies'.
• Click 'View Stored Cookies'.
• Select the cookie you wish to delete.
• Click 'Remove Cookie'. Do not click the checkbox title that says 'Don't allow removed cookies to be reaccepted later' otherwise this will add them to a list easily accessible through the 'Cookies Sites' tab.

Email

It may be very easy for people to read your incoming and outgoing emails. Here are some tips to ensure that your email is as secure as possible:

Set up another email address with any of the free web mail services such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Lycos.

Delete messages from both your Inbox and Recycle Bin (or 'Deleted Items') as soon as you have read them.

If you believe your email account is secure, choose a password that will be difficult to guess.

You will need to delete your browser's records of the email service provider's website from your browser history.

To re-iterate, each of the above methods can only help to reduce the risk of your internet activity being tracked. The safest method is to use the internet on a computer that you know your abuser does not have access to.