A proxy server is a computer used as a sort of intermediate between your computer and the websites you are visiting so you can surf anonymously or bypass blocking abilities of the websites you’re visiting. You can hide your home IP address by using a proxy server.
Anonymity with Proxy Servers
For example, you can leave an anonymous comment on a website if you’re using a proxy server. The website’s owner may block the proxy’s IP address, but it wouldn’t block your home IP address. If they tried to track the IP address, they would have a difficult time tracking it back to your real, home IP address. However, they may very well just block the IP address (if they didn’t want your comment), without looking further into it.
Proxy servers used to be the only way anyone could access the world wide web, but times change. Proxies are often used by hackers to get behind network firewalls.
*Cue Penelope Garcia*
An example of that might be using a building’s computer as a proxy to get behind the network firewall of that building because the IP address of that computer would be allowed there. A proxy server is most often a hacking tool, though it used to be the only way people could use the internet. In the past, computers would basically fight with each other while trying to access the internet, so one computer in a building would be the main one – a proxy for all of the other household computers to get an internet connection from.
Proxy Server Cons
Proxies, in general, have many downfalls, apart from the incredibly low speed, which is only worsened by slow internet connections and inefficient hardware. Proxies affect all browsers, so if you forget to turn it off you may enter information you don’t want to be entering while using someone’s proxy. After all, think about why someone would let you use their computer as a proxy server in the first place. Proxy servers are often hacker tools, so hackers generally are the ones to use them, as well as create them. It slows down their computer and clogs it with internet traffic and poor internet choices.
Why Would Someone Offer Their Computer as a Public Proxy?
To gain mass amounts of information from people with as little work as possible. Never save passwords over a proxy. Any information you enter is initially sent through that proxy server, and you can bet the hackers are saving that information. While you might be using a proxy server for anonymity, whoever is providing that proxy may likely be using it for criminal purposes.
Proxy Server Pros
There are more uses for proxy servers than just for hacking.
Privacy/Anonymity
The main reason is still privacy. You can browse without websites knowing where the original request came from. Your personal information and browsing remain private.
Control
Companies and schools use proxy servers to control where their employees and students can and can’t go online. A proxy server also allows parents and school boards to monitor their children’s and employee’s browsing habits so they can see how much time is spent on websites that have nothing to do with work or study.
How Does a Proxy Server Work?
The image is an example of how a proxy server works, not a recommendation to use it to bypass school firewalls. Study in school, kids! Stay off of Facebook.
Your computer sends information to the proxy, which then sends it to the internet. If the path exists in one direction, it’s going to be possible to link the two from the other side. It’s more than possible to trace a proxy, and if the federal police get a search warrant for your IP address, your company will give them your information (such as your home address) without hesitation.
OR you’ll get reprimanded for using Facebook while in school.
You may think that proxy servers sound much like virtual private servers (VPSs), but they are not the same. The only thing they have in common is that they both hide your home IP address.
How to Set up a Proxy Server
There are several ways to set up a proxy server if you need one. There are websites that will allow you to use their proxy servers. Beware of hackers who will skim your information. If you can access their server, they can access your computer. These website proxy servers act kind of like a private browser on Google. There is also a service you can utilize that changes your IP address every minute for maximum anonymity and bypass. It’s called a proxy changing service, and it is expensive.
You might be using a proxy server for anonymity, but servers work both ways, proxy or not.
So, what do you think of proxy servers?
Do you use proxies?
Do you host a proxy server?
Discuss in the comments!
