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By relying on intermediate proxy servers to camouflage your PC's IP address, Steganos Internet Anonym Pro 7 claims it will keep your surfing anonymous. Unfortunately, my tests produced poor results that left me feeling exposed.

I tested a shipping version of the $60 app and noticed a significant decline in my access speed after installing the program. Steganos warns that the app may slow access, but when I turned on the anonymity feature, my connection seemed to grind to a halt.

The culprit turned out to be a default setting that was altering the proxy identity once per second. After adjusting the interval for changing identity to once per minute, I could surf, but my connection remained extremely sluggish.

Slow performance wasn't the only drawback of Anonym Pro 7. On several occasions the app assured me that it was preserving my anonymity--even when it was not.

For example, when I probed my PC using Sygate Online Services' free security scanner, the Web site had no difficulty determining my system's actual public IP, though Anonym Pro 7 continued to report that my identity was secret.

Sygate's site uses standard http over port 443--the same PC port that secure Internet sites employ in working with https. According to Steganos reps, http is not redirected to anonymizing proxies if it is used on any port other than the standard port 80. But the program never alerted me to this change, encouraging me to believe that I was surfing anonymously when I was not.

In the end, you're probably better off surfing unprotected than proceeding with an unwarranted sense of security.

Mary Landesman

Steganos Internet Anonym Pro 7

App promises Web anonymity but delivers unreliable results.
Price when reviewed: $60 full, $50 upgrade
Current Prices (if available)