Knowing location of those who browse your sites

[Lionheartilly]

It hits me that certain websites I go to know the location or the vicinity in which I live. This strikes me as odd and I'm wondering if there is a way to stop this. For instance, the websites will be of those that are those to the area that I live in.

Thanks

Lion

[JPnyc]

You can use a proxy, that's one way.

[felgall]

You could use an ISP located in some other part of the world. The connection charges might be a bit hight though.

[Lionheartilly]

Much thx for the replies but I'm still a little lost.
Do anyone knows how the site visited can know the area where you live? Is it possible that the site can use the IP from my computer and be able to tell the area I live in?

Jpnyc, will you please post a link with regards to proxy so that I can further read up on it to understand better? Thanks.

And to felgall, are you suggesting that I connect to the WWW through a server located in some part of the world such that the site will not be identify what the IP is?

Thanks for the explanation!

Lion

[JPnyc]

Yes, it's a relatively simple matter to grab the IP of a visitor and trace it to the ISP, which would then give them the location. You can do that yourself with WHOIS.

Just plug the word proxy into any search engine and you'll get a ton of em.