What is the difference between a proxy and a VPN?
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A proxy is any server located between your device and a wider network, such as the Internet. A VPN server is a specific type of proxy, but many other types of proxy exist. Although inaccurate (and as a consequence confusing), VPNs often contrast with proxies.
Learn more about what a VPN is
In this article, we look at what a proxy is and give an overview of the different types of proxy that are available.
What is an agent?
As mentioned above, a proxy is a server located between your device and the Internet. This means that your internet traffic goes through the proxy server and enters the internet using its IP address and physical location. And therefore, All Agents:
- Hide your real IP address from websites (and other Internet resources, such as game servers, BitTorrent peers, and email servers) you visit on the Internet
- Can be used to “spoof” your true geographical location
The connection between your computer and the proxy server is not always secured with encryption, but it is often secured. If the connection is encrypted:
- Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can’t see what you’re doing on the Internet. It can only see that you are connected to a proxy server.
- It also cannot see the contents of your Internet traffic (for example, files you download).
Most importantly, since your traffic goes through the proxy server and is encrypted and decrypted, Anyone running a proxy server can monitor your internet activity. This is why it is so important that you only use a trustworthy VPN to access the Internet.
Technically, this describes a forward agent that lies between your computer and the Internet. a reverse proxyOn the other hand, it acts as a gateway between the internet and a small set of servers. The classic example of a reverse proxy is an office intranet that can only be accessed from the outside through a single server (reverse proxy).
All proxies discussed in the rest of this article are forward proxies.
VPNs vs Proxies (other types)
If you are familiar with how VPNs work, this may sound very familiar. The main differences between a VPN and most other types of encrypted proxy settings are:
- A VPN protects your entire internet connection, while most proxies must be configured on an application-by-application basis (for example, your browser or BitTorrent client).
- VPNs use highly secure VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN and WireGuard, which provide additional layers of security for your data rather than just the simple HTTPS protocol used to secure most proxy connections.
- VPN providers are commercial entities, and often come under a great deal of public scrutiny. VPN companies, such as Proton, spend a significant amount of time and money building a large, highly secure network infrastructure and developing advanced features for their community.
Learn more about how VPNs work
As discussed below, commercial (non-VPN) proxy services do exist, but the advantages of VPN technology over normal HTTP and SOCKS proxy settings mean that this sector is much less developed (and therefore less open to scrutiny) than the VPN industry.
Types of agencies
There are different types of proxy servers. When people simply refer to a proxy server or a proxy server without an additional context, they usually mean a SOCKS or HTTP proxy.
SOCKS . proxy
SOCKS (shrinking “secure socket”) is a low-level Internet protocol that does not interpret Internet traffic. That is, it simply passes along all the traffic without making any attempt to understand what it is. This makes it useful for simply redirecting all types of Internet traffic, including traffic that uses protocols, such as:
- File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
- POP3 and SMTP (used to send and receive email messages)
- Internet chat (IRC)
- Bit torrent
The ability of SOCKS to proxy BitTorrent traffic, in particular, is a common reason to use SOCKS proxies, sometimes known as “torrent proxies”. Along with the high bandwidth that is often consumed while torrenting, public SOCKS proxies often suffer from a large load on the server.
HTTPS support is built into the SOCKS protocol, and is often used to secure connections to SOCKS proxy servers.
SOCKS4 remains the most popular version of SOCKS used by proxy servers, but 5 . socks It is the latest version. It provides proxy operators with different ways to authenticate users, giving them more control over who uses the server. Commercial proxy servers, for example, can use SOCKS5 to ensure that only paying clients can connect to their servers. However, the benefits for people using SOCKS5 proxies are minimal.
proxy site
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connects websites and other resources on the World Wide Web. HTTP proxies are supported by a very wide variety of applications and programs that use the HTTP protocol, most notably browsers.
Although relying on HTTP limits HTTP proxies to a certain extent, it also allows them to operate at a higher level. This means that they understand and interpret web traffic, which is useful for things like:
- Web content filtering (for example, removing unnecessary or dangerous banners and text)
- Restrict access to websites and other Internet resources (for example, adult content)
- Caching media and content to improve performance
It also allows the agent to do things that many people might not be happy with, such as:
- Web content monitoring (for example, political content)
- Injecting ad banners and malicious code – this is a particular problem with free HTTP proxy servers
HTTP connections are not secure by default, which allows your ISP and other third parties to monitor your internet traffic. However, communications can be encrypted using the HTTPS protocol that secures all traffic on the Internet. HTTP proxy servers that use HTTPS to secure your connection to the proxy server are often called HTTPS Proxies.
Network Agent
A web proxy is an HTTP proxy that you connect to within your browser window without having to download any software or configure your browser’s proxy settings. Most are free, but that’s usually a downside, as many fund themselves by injecting banners, ads, and other (potentially malicious) scripts into their browser window.
In fact, many web proxies disrupt your browsing experience to the point of making the Internet unusable.
transparent agent
There are transparent proxy servers between your device and the Internet but they are not something you purposely connect to. In fact, you may not even know you’re using one.
Benign uses of transparent proxy servers include WiFi gateways you log into on public WiFi hotspots and filters that block inappropriate content on WiFi provided by public libraries or schools. Less palatable uses include censoring legitimate content for political, social, or religious reasons.
URL proxy
The proxy URL is not a real proxy but a web address that redirects to another URL. It can be useful to evade censorship when a URL is blocked.
Tor
Tor’s anonymity network routes communications through multiple Contract, with the connection encrypted every time. Each node acts as a proxy server and is run (at least in theory) by volunteers.
special agent
A private (or closed) proxy is any proxy server that is run privately and not publicly available. Perhaps the most common example is a reverse proxy used by a company to act as a gateway to internal company resources, but it is also common for individuals to set up remote private proxy servers (which may be VPNs) to bypass censorship.
However, it should be noted that such proxies and VPNs are not as good at protecting your privacy as commercial VPN services because the ownership of the proxy server IP address can be easily traced back to you.
commercial agent
A commercial proxy (other than a VPN) is a paid service that allows you to connect to HTTP or SOCKS proxies operated by a business. These connections are almost always secured using HTTPS.
Most commercial agents are running out of data centers, although commercial proxy services offering residential or mobile IP addresses are an emerging industry.
Commercial agents are often rated based on the amount of privacy they offer:
- Shared – A proxy server (and its associated IP address) that is shared with many other clients.
- Semi-joint – A joint agent with a limited number of other clients (usually three other clients).
- Exclusive or Dedicated – You have exclusive use of the proxy and its associated (static) IP address, although it should be noted that this almost always means a virtual server hosted on a physical machine that hosts many of these virtual servers. It is also worth noting that having an exclusive IP reduces privacy as the IP can be traced back to you.
Residential and mobile agents
Most commercial agents are operated from data centers and use IP addresses that are leased from your ISP. These blocks are sometimes blocked from IP addresses controlled by the data center (a common technique used by streaming services that geo-restrict their content for copyright reasons).
Residential proxies are operated directly by ISPs, and thus use IP addresses that are indistinguishable from “real” IP addresses that belong to physical addresses. So it is almost impossible to block them and provide a higher level of accuracy when using a proxy to spoof your site.
Mobile proxies are very similar to residential proxies, except that they are provided by mobile Internet service providers.
general agent
A public proxy is available for anyone to use for free. Lists of public proxies are freely available on the Internet, but we highly recommend against using them.
This is because there is no way to know who is running the server and there is no reason to trust them. In fact, since they can spy on everything you do online when connected to the server while asking nothing in exchange for the time and effort required to run a proxy server, there is every reason to be suspicious.
General agents are usually classified according to level of anonymity.
- Level 1 (transparent agent or caching agent) Not to be confused with the type of transparent proxy discussed earlier in this article, these proxies will hide your IP address to a minimum. However, it still appears in the address of the request sent when connecting to web pages. While not providing effective privacy on the Internet, level 1 proxies are primarily used to improve web performance by caching content.
- Level 2 (unknown internet server) – This type of proxy provides some privacy on the Internet by hiding your real IP address from the websites you visit. However, they are not trying to hide the fact that you are using a proxy server. It is common for proxy servers to declare themselves as proxy servers using FORWARDED headers when making page requests.
- level 3 (elite agent or Agent of high anonymity) – The level 3 proxy not only hides your real IP but will not announce the fact that you are using a proxy for the websites you visit. Public level 3 proxies tend to be very common, which can also make them very slow.
Why you should use a VPN
As we’ve discussed, there are many different types of proxy. VPNs and commercial proxies are similar in many ways and are often used to achieve similar ends. However, there are good reasons why the VPN market is much larger and more developed than the commercial proxy market.
- A VPN protects your entire internet connection and you don’t need to configure it on an app-by-app basis.
- HTTPS secures connections to the proxy server, but advanced VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN and WireGuard, provide higher levels of security. For example, OpenVPN also encrypts your data itself using AES-256, while WireGuard uses ChaCha20.
- Dedicated VPN applications and extensive network capabilities allow VPN companies to offer a wide range of advanced features. For example, ProtonVPN runs servers at 55…
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