Posted By: brenn97
I heard you can activate directly from the phone, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. If you can do it, then Tracfone makes that function very hard to find. Also, again, if you are paranoid like me, you should not use your home computer network, even if it belongs to your landlord. You can be tracked down that way. Not that anyone would ever bother. But -- paranoid!

If you want to use a computer, you can download and install a program called JAP:
http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/download_en.htmlWhen running, all of your traffic goes from you computer, over to Europe, and then from there out through one of many anaymous computers. There is no way for anyone to track back to you through Tracpohnes access records.
By default it's kind of slow, OK for activating a phone but not much else. You can pay for upgraded speed and then potentially you could do all your TER and other network activity with it. I have not yet taken that step myself.
That would really be the way to go for the truly paranoid...
Also while we're being paranoid, don't turn on your hobby phone within a mile or two of your house, and take out the battery when not in use - in theory if someone were trying to track down a phone they can ask a phone company to turn it on remotley and then triangulate location once it is on. Not very accurate, but it could get someone close to your location.