Hide The IP 2010 2.9

Hide the IP masks your true IP address to protect your anonymity while surfing the Web. We found this portion of the application to function simply and effectively: click the lock icon, and within seconds the program has found and acquired a false IP for you. Your real and current IP addresses are displayed in the application window.

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Unfortunately, Hide the IP does not stop there. Instead, the developer adds useful-sounding features, such as the ability to Search for IP by Country or Search by Anonymity, but fails to provide any controls--such as a search box or Go button--to actually use them. The program offers a few settings, such as the option to surf without cookies or launch the program with Windows. More-advanced users could theoretically add proxies by typing them into the Proxy Checker dialog or uploading a file of unspecified type, but we could not get this feature to work. When we checked the Help file, we found uninformative, one-sentence explanations of each icon in the navigation bar. The developer also threw in a bonus explanation of an icon that does not actually appear in the program.

Sure, the program does mask your IP. But that single achievement does not outweigh the drawbacks of Hide the IP's poor user interface, extremely short three-day trial period, and hefty price tag.

• SharewarePlaza Mirror (US)