What are IP blockers?

I see free downloads for IP (Internet Provider?) blockers like PeerGuardian and Protowall.

What exactly do these do and how are they useful?

 

They block bad incoming ip address that are blacklisted by various internet security organizations.IP=Internet protocol.Firewall are tend to be prefered as it will also give you stealth on the network.And filter both outgoing and incoming comunication

 

So if I have one of these IP blockers it is like having a firewall that not only blocks incoming IPs but disallows them from reading my IP address as well? Is that sort of like these "anonymizers" you see bandied about?

 

They are not firewalls, they only block connections from IP addresses on their master list, nor are they anonymizers.

 

Right. And they are only used because they tend to be lightweight,firewalls are allways prefered for total security.

 

I have heard of this before. Some use this to download MP3's and share them so that they are not tracked. Does that make sense? But, here, there's a difference in definition. Sure I understand the firewall part of this program, but why doesn't it make it an anonymizer? I don't get it. I tell my kid not to download anything or share anything that is copyrighted without paying for it. Am I on the right track here?

 

Its not an anonymizer,it doesnt hide you ,it just blocks some known ip adresses,and these programs have lists to choose from and they include anti-p2p group along with spyware etc.Yeah you are on the right track.However it wont ensure much releif to p2p users or from malware as no list can include all such 'threats'?

 

Though, editing the host table with these blacklisted address do pretty much the same thing.

Spybot has a feature that actually blacklists a ton of websites through the host table.


Just my 2 cents.

 

Editing the HOSTS file blocks outbound connections only. These IP blockers prevent blacklisted IP addresses from making inbound connections as well as outbound connections. That is why they are popular with the P2P crowd

 

Errgh, you are quite correct. Didn't realize that these IP blockers went both ways.

 

Okay. I started this mess and I am really, really stupid about these things but I'm not so stupid as to not know I am.


Are these incoming IP addresses like spyware, adware, keyloggers, data miners, etc that put cookies on the computer and then pop in to read them and collect data? Do these programs prevent them from placing the spyware on the computer and, in the case of their already having it there, disallow them from reading them?

Why do they state that they prevent outgoing IP information if they are not acting as anonymizers; or is the blocking of outgoing IP information confined to the addresses on the blacklist only?
Do these programs slow down page access as they take time to search for IP addresses on the blacklist?

 

It helps to think of an IP address as something akin to a phone number. Most every internet connection has an IP address associated with it. For computers to exchange information over the internet, they need to know where to send the information. Your computer, my computer, and the MajorGeeks server all have IP addresses, for example.

The programs block your computer from connecting to any of the IP addresses on the blacklist, and reject any connection originating from blacklisted addresses. Any address not on the blacklist will be ignored. They do not block other computers from getting your IP address, they only block connections. If the IP blocker is breaking the connection, the other computer already has your IP address. I,ve never used one, so I can't say what they cost in performance. I doubt it's significant and probably has to do with the size of the blacklist, if anything.