Blogs What are Proxy Servers?

Although there are many ways to remain anonymous online, the most popular is using proxy servers. A proxy server is a machine that accepts incoming web requests and then forwards them onto the destination; they are like the middle men of the internet and keep your computer and destination web server separate. pirate bay proxy

This basically means that the proxy server sends the request to the web server. It looks like it came from the proxy server and you have not visited the site. There are many types of proxy servers, but these are the most popular.

HTTP Proxy - These proxy servers are used to send HTTP traffic. They would be relevant in the above example.
Filtering Proxy - These proxy servers are often found at work. They are used to block certain websites from being accessed and prevent bandwidth wasting. However, they are not used for privacy.
SOCKS Proxies - These are used to tunnel other kinds of traffic which could include messenger or ftp traffic.

Proxies can also be categorized into one of the below:

Anonymous - These do not identify you to the end server and therefore keep you anonymous. They can be broken down into two other sub categories - elite and disguised. An elite will not distinguish itself as a proxy server to the end machine. A disguised on the other hand will hand over enough information for the end machine to realize it is a proxy server, however it will not give out your IP address and therefore your privacy is intact. Pirate proxy

In terms of privacy there are some other considerations to make. Firstly there are many different places to acquire your proxies from. You can get public ones which anybody can use or you can use private ones that will cost you. You can't be certain of the source hosting the proxy. If they are, you won't know if they collect logs.

This is why if you want to have peace of mind and proper privacy you should get your proxy servers from a reputable company and ensure that in their terms and conditions they state that they do not collect log files. Many not so legitimate companies will harvest their proxy server from botnet infested machines and although this will mean you don't have to worry about any logs being collected, it also means that you are funding a potential crime syndicate online that specialize in making money from selling infects machines!

Not everybody wants to use a proxy server to be anonymous though and you will that a lot of people want to be able to browse sites at work that are blocked by their web filter. A web proxy is required in this situation. Proxies allow you to access other websites, provided that the proxy website isn't blocked.