Proxy servers - Surf anonymously (and safely!) online

Even though server and client are terms easily defined most of us don't even attempt to understand the basic concepts of something as 'vague' as a proxy. And with more (unreadable) technical information about proxies than clear descriptions it becomes even easier to lose track of what is important.

This article will attempt to explain the concept of a proxy in terms anyone can (or should be able to) understand. To understand the basic workings of a proxy let us first take a look at overall network architecture:

In a typical company or home network (of more than one PC) generally the PCs we use daily are connected to another computer that takes care of our internet connection and makes sure we have access to the rest of the network. In this simple picture our PC would be called a 'client' and the computer supplying us with the Internet connection would be a 'Server'.

How this connection is set-up and achieved is not relevant to this article (nor would it be very interesting to us). What is relevant however is the knowledge that all communications on a network are done via a unique address (much like our home addresses) that is assigned to each computer known as an IP Address.

If, for example, we want to download a file from the Internet we have to make a request to the computer (via its IP address) that holds the file to send us that file. Then that computer makes use of our IP address (which we supplied in our request) to send us the information we wanted.

As you can imagine if our IP address is truly unique then we actually leave our digital fingerprint anywhere and everywhere we go. Now even if we don't have anything to hide about our online activities (and most of us don't) leaving our fingerprints all over the place doesn't seem like the best idea.

The risk of leaving our fingerprints all over the place can range from being attacked by viruses, getting more ads and Spam and can even be as dire as the theft of your online identity (someone using your 'fingerprint' for their own gain or to mask their own activities).

To resolve this we would need some way of either smudging out our fingerprint or a fingerprint we can 'borrow' (in a legitimate way of course).

A proxy does exactly that, it allows you to exchange your fingerprint for another fingerprint set by the proxy causing only the proxy to have your fingerprint instead of the entire world (relatively speaking of course).

This brings us to the question:

What is a proxy?

The dictionary defines a proxy as someone who can act on our behalf; an agent in our employ so to speak. This is only partially applicable for the Internet. It is true that proxies serve to provide a certain measure of anonymity on the web by hiding our IPs (replacing them with their own) but they serve a more important goal as well.

In order to understand the proxy's main reason for 'living' we take a quick look at our network (those servers and clients we discussed before). In every network clients continually make requests for information (e.g. a web page, a file download or similar information). If we imagine every one of these requests to be a truck on a highway sent out to bring back a load of information then you can also imagine that so many trucks roaming about could cause a severe traffic jam.

This is related to the fact that it takes time for the truck to travel all the way to it's destination to request, and then return with, the information we wanted.

To solve these traffic jams we can install a proxy server into our network (just another computer some would say). This proxy server can then serve as a type of storage room. Trucks that contain information (web sites, file downloads or whatever may have been requested) are stopped and a copy of the information is made before the truck gets to resume its course.

Should a different client on the network (or the same) request that information as well then the proxy will take the information out of storage and send it to the PC that requested the information. This potentially saves an exceptional amount of time (the time it would take for the truck to go out on the Internet and get back with it) by shortening the information supply route since the information is still within the proxy's cache.

As previously indicated the proxy server also serves as an agent. All requests routed through a particular proxy will result in the proxy replacing our IP address with their own and then processing the request as if the proxy made the request and not us. This allows us to hide our identity.

Once the information is retrieved the proxy will send it to the client who requested it.

This simple method can help immensely in protecting your own personal interests and private information and as a result many types of free proxy servers are available to us today. (To find free proxy server's you can use the search term " free proxy server " at your favorite search engine. Please don't fotget not to use the quote marks!)

But unfortunately the proxy has a few drawbacks that are not to be underestimated:

Proxy drawbacks

A proxy server draws a hard line between what is 'in' the network and what is 'outside' the network. Communications from inside the network (our clients) is not restricted but the 'outside' (the PCs on the internet for example) have absolutely no way of contacting the computers 'in' the network without going through the Proxy.

Most of us would think this is good. After all making it harder for other people to access our networks will add to the overall security and keep us safe from most attacks from the Internet.

With the proxy server in place it becomes nearly impossible to access the files on the internal network from the outside. If we are at home and want to retrieve an important file (or not so important one) from our work place after hours we may be able to get through to the proxy, but that is where our road ends.

In order for us to have access to our files inside the protected network the system will have to be configured for us to do so.

If in addition we would like to send a more private email directly to someone else on the network then we cannot do this without going through the proxy. Even though this is not necessarily a barrier it does compromise the security of your (not so-) private mail.

And last but not least, proxy servers are decidedly slow in their efforts in some areas. Unless your request is already cached (stored) chances are that the proxy server is already busy doing something else and it will get to our request in due time.

The choice of whether or not to use a proxy server is upon each of us individually. Some may need the services a proxy can provide in the interest of security, others may simply wish to hide in the darkness of anonymity.