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Shihabudheen US
Shihabudheen US

Posted on • Edited on

Proxy in short

What is proxyโ“

Proxies are servers ๐Ÿ›๏ธ that sit in between your machine ๐Ÿ’ป and the server ๐Ÿ—„๏ธ you are trying to reach. It is kind of a middleman ๐Ÿ‘ฎโ€โ™€๏ธ. When you request data from a server, that request is intercepted and forwarded by the proxy server. For the data to reach back, it has to pass through the same proxy again.

When you are behind a proxy ๐Ÿ•ธ๏ธ, your computer's IP will never be shared. All your internet traffic would be seen as coming from a different IP, that is of the proxy server.

proxy

Why to use a proxyโ”

Proxy servers are usually used to:

  • ensure security ๐Ÿ”
  • site whitelisting ๐Ÿ“„
  • monitoring ๐Ÿ›ฐ๏ธ
  • fake location ๐Ÿ—บ๏ธ

Depending upon the purpose, there are different types of proxy servers. Some of them are:

1.Transparent proxy

Transparent proxies are the simplest kind of proxy. They pass all of your information along, but with the proxy's IP address. These proxies don't offer any kind of privacy protection.

2.Anonymous proxy

Anonymous ๐Ÿ‘ป proxies are a commonly used type of proxy. They never pass your IP address to the website you are browsing although they will identify themselves as a proxy in the request. This helps you to keep your browsing activity private ๐Ÿฆนโ€โ™€๏ธ.

3.Rotating proxy

Rotating proxies work a little differently from the others. Every time a client connects to the proxy, a new IP address is created for it. So they never use the same IP address more than once.

4.Reverse proxy

Reverse proxies are completely different from everything we've covered so far. A reverse proxy hides the IP address of a server you're trying to send a request to. When a server needs security and privacy from clients, that's when these types of proxies come in.

VPNs

VPN(Virtual Private Network)s are also meant for security and monitoring. But it will control and monitor all the network activities, including FTP downloads and uploads, and background OS operations like updates. In that way, VPNs are much more secure ๐Ÿ” than proxy servers. When you are using a VPN, even the ISP(Internet Service Provider) can't see your internet activity. All they can see is, just connected ๐Ÿ”Œ to a VPN. So, your requests are highly private and concealed when using a VPN.

Compared to proxy servers, VPNs are expensive ๐Ÿ’ฐ to run and maintain.

Top comments (3)

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nannysowder59 profile image
nannysowder59 • Edited

they explained it very simply, I still couldn't find a suitable article for even a beginner to understand. I have been trying for several days to explain to my stubborn father what a proxy server is and what it is for, but my dad does not want to listen to me in any way. I just want him to let me buy 4g proxies for my computer, but he doesn't know what it is and thinks it's some kind of useless crap. Do you think I can convince him if I annoy him even more? I really hope so, because I really need the services of this service

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herefer profile image
herefer • Edited

It's a very simple and clear article. It would be great for people who are just beginning to understand how the Internet works. It would improve people's literacy and keep them safe from unwanted sites and scammers. A proxy is a very useful thing. Thanks to it, you can be sure of your anonymity. When I started my career in IT, I didn't understand who needed proxy servers. A little bit later, I began to use proxies because I had read many articles and understood that we were exposing ourselves to danger in Internet space without them. I use malaysia proxies daily and am fully confident in their reliability. After some experiments, I concluded that the best way to use proxies is to use paid proxies.

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molposedra profile image
molposedra

It's a very simple and clear article. It would be great for people who are just beginning to understand how the Internet works.