Are there any open-source IP maskers (tools like Ghostsurf and Primedius that enable anonymous surfing) out there released under something like the GNU licence?

Ipmaskers only do 1 of 2 things.
1) they run everything you do through a proxy
or
2) they register your computer with an funny DNS other computers use to contact your computer.

some do both. there is no program that can do that localy. they make it appear that they can. by messing with your system settings.

There are some Free proxies you could use, but I doubt they are very fast or reliable.

OK. So is there anything that will let you change your IP so it appears you are with a different service provider in another country?

(yes, I'm big on keeping my computer safe but I'm doing it for perfectly legit reasons- I don't want anyone being able to touch anything on my PC if I piss them off in an online game or use my PC as a proxy (like with Primedius) )

If security is your main concern then use a hardware firewall. Harder to hack into a hardware firewall rather than a software one (and because its a dedicated box you notice when its off).

Block all the ports you don't use (Both incommin and outgoing) then you should be pretty safe.

Apart from using proxy and things already mentioned, no. One can pretend to be from a different IP, but then the other computer (the one you're trying to talk to) think it's tlking to a computer at the fake IP and send data to that IP and not u.

OK thanks people, I'll look into the firewall issues. B)

BTW: Short of buying a copy of Ghostsurf, this is the best 'anonymous' thing I've found:

Anonymouse

Yep. Your browser automatically sends all sorts of stuff to the web server. The reason behind this is so that the server can automatically compensate for the different types of browser and generate HTML that works on the browser. Other bits of information are used to track if banner adds are working etc.

Some browsers allow you to turn of parts of this information or even impersonate other browsers. Check out some non main stream browsers. Opera.

hmm, it might be posiable to do with some servers that use udp becasue of the ability to transmit to 'unused' ipaddresses (used for multicasting) you might be able to fake the server to sending to an multicast address that you are listning to and pick up your data that way. but i would consider that less secure becasue someone could easily connect to your address and listen to everything sent. but at least you would be annoymous.

Easy then(!) lol ;)

Seriously I appreciate the help.