There may be a time when you need to use an anonymous proxy server. Perhaps you are being blocked access to a site from a public computer or in the work place. Another reason many people will use an anonymous proxy server is to maintain their anonymity while surfing the web.
Connecting to the internet through an anonymous proxy can help you get around barriers, and can offer h best level of protection to protect your privacy on the web. An anonymous proxy server will hide your true IP Address while mimicking another IP Address – thus your true location is hidden.
How Does An Anonymous Proxy Work?
As the ordinary meaning of the word implies, a ‘proxy’ is an entity that will handle a transaction for you on your behalf, a middle-man. A web-proxy can be used to cache repeated requests to web pages to conserve bandwidth expenses to network owners. Just as proxies can be used to enhance the serving of web requests, they can be used to block connections to web sites. Yet, hope is not lost. One can configure the web browser to deliberately use proxies of the user’s choice.
In the Option Menus of Internet Explorer and FireFox you can find your proxy settings if you follow these steps. This is where you’ll input the IP address and port to connect to a proxy server.
Set up Internet Explorer for Anonymous Proxies
In order to start using proxies to hide IP addresses while browsing with Internet Explorer, the following steps need to be executed:
Click Tools menu > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings.
Under Proxy server, check the Use a proxy server for your LAN check box.
Type the proxy server IP address in the Address box.
Type 8080 in the Port box.
If you want the local computers on your network to able to receive identification information about the system using proxy, there is a “Bypass proxy server for local addresses” check box which you can check.
Click OK to save changes and come back to the main UI.
Mozilla FireFox
Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network tab -> Settings button in the ‘Connections’ section
Find a Free Anonymous Proxy
Of course you’ll need something to input in those blank fields. Here are resources…
http://www.proxyserversites.com/ http://www.hidemyass.com/facebook-proxy/ , http://proxy.org/ , http://www.proxysites.com/ , http://www.Directproxyserver.com, http://www.Onionproxy.com, and http://www.Onlineproxyservers.com
Although using anonymous proxy servers to surf the web can feel liberating and your IP address is hidden, there are some things you need to know.
Free Proxy Server List
Here are IP addresses of some recommended proxies that are arranged by the country of server location.
Socks Proxy Server from India
- · 110.5.73.48:1080
- · 111.125.228.11:1080
- · 111.235.72.145:1080
Socks Proxy Server from China
- · 110.212.149.196:1080
- · 113.111.117.237:1080
- · 111.112.152.178:1080
Socks Proxy Server from Taiwan
- · 111.240.91.230:1080
- · 114.40.127.92:1080
- · 114.46.120.248:1080
Socks Proxy Server from Ukraine
- · 109.254.54.44:1080
- · 109.87.212.231:1080
- · 109.95.44.47:1080
Socks Proxy Server from Russian Federation
- · 109.171.40.224:1080
- · 109.191.233.30:1080
- · 109.194.175.21:1080
Use an Anonymous Proxy Server
A proxy server acts like a bridge between a client and a server, when the client puts forward some request for resources and services. When your PC connects to any sever, the server can see a lot of information about your system. This primarily includes:
- · Your IP address
- · Your location
- · Your ISP
- · Hostname
- · Your system configuration
- · Color-settings
- · The web browser you are using
- · URL of the previous site you visited
All proxies are not anonymous. There are many transparent proxies too, which send information about your IP to the server granting your computer’s request. For general uses, sock proxies are excellent. They do not cache pages, hence leaving no trace of the pages accessed by you. They are positioned at port 1080.
Why Use an Anonymous Proxy Server?
The most prominent reasons for using a proxy server are:
- · Anonymity: Proxy servers can protect the identity of client machines.
- · Expedite web page loading: Proxy servers cache web pages and speed up the access to resources.
- · Block undesirable sites: Proxy with certain rules to block undesirable sites can be used to apply the feature across a complete network.
- · Use of proxy servers allows companies to monitor employee usage data.
- · Sometimes proxy servers can be used to reach a blocked site and region restricted hosted data.
- · They may be used to check for data leakage in outbound data and malicious code in inbound data.
Testing your Anonymous Proxy
Once your browser is set up to use proxies, it is important to check whether you are able to achieve the desired result. In order to check the functioning of your proxy, visit any of the proxy testing sites mentioned below.
security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp
www.lfd.niedersachsen.de
wiebenik.beveiligingsadvies.nl
www.leader.ru/secure/who.html
scan.sygatetech.com
If you are really serious about hiding your identity on the internet, there is one technique that can help you: Proxy chaining. Using this technique the client connects to the server through a series of interlinked proxies. This makes the tracking of activities next to impossible. With an increase in the number of proxies in the chain, the mystery about your identity grows deeper. You can also leverage foreign proxies to make tracking you even more difficult since it takes longer and more work to get logs from servers in foreign countries. An ideal number of proxies in a proxy chain is 7.
Drawbacks to Using a Proxy Server When Trying To Hide Your Identity (IP Address)
The major drawback is that proxy servers can slow down your Internet connection significantly in certain situations. In addition, free proxy servers aren’t always reliable or safe.
When you use an anonymous proxy server, the data you exchange travels unencrypted through the server and is open to theft, leakage and attack. Sensitive data like passwords and browsing history can be derived from the proxy server’s cache.
Proxy servers only insert an additional layer between the client and the server. This does not make you invisible. There are methods to intercept data with TLS and SSL encryption.
It is important to choose your proxy server wisely. One of the best practices to follow while using proxy servers is to check out the privacy policy of the server and avoid the use of username and password through encrypted or unencrypted proxies. Wish you all the best with invisible surfing!
Warnings about Proxies!
Not all proxies are safe or can be trusted.
Some proxies exist for the purposes of collecting information and exploiting unsuspecting individuals. Your implementation of anonymity can lead to your exposure.
Proxy servers can be unreliable.
Corporations, schools, government agencies often take measures to block access to proxy servers, thus making them unavailable to you. Proxy servers lists need to be regularly updated. You may find yourself trying more than a few proxy servers before you find one that works. Anonymous proxy servers are frequently used by others of similar ilk, and can be prone to being overloaded. Surfing by proxy is often much slower than your high bandwidth connection.
Increase the usability of proxy servers by making use of these add-ons for FireFox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxyproxy-standard/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/torbutton/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/autoproxy/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/stealthy/
Proxy servers may not offer you the security that you want.
Many, many proxy servers are unable to provide a secure https transport to your email, bank, social networking site, etc.
Proxy servers may not guarantee complete and comprehensive anonymity.
Proxy servers aren’t that mysterious; they simply add an extra stop for your web traffic as it’s bouncing around the Internet. They can be very convenient and help users solve problems when it comes to bypassing access restrictions or avoiding unnecessary risks online. Actually using proxy servers is a bit more complicated in practice, but if you know what you’re doing they don’t require much effort to implement.
Advanced Anonymous Proxy Topics
You may succeed in hiding your IP address, but there are more cookie crumbs to clean up if you truly need to hide your tracks. A proxy does not clean up your cookies. Browsing cookies are a good tool for exposing web habits. Internet Explorer and FireFox both have obscure and hidden caches that track the websites that you visit. For IE, the index.dat file keeps a record of everywhere that you’ve ever been. FireFox has a similar cache, but it will require a special reader to view it.
You may succeed at using a proxy at work or school, but your DNS requests can still be tracked back to you. The domain name to IP resolution service which is provided by in-house DNS servers may be configured to track what websites you are visiting. Before you can browse a website, your computer via the network interface, asks a DNS server to translate the name of the website (supercoolsite.com) into an IP address (123.456.789.01). Once the server gives you the IP address the web browser picks up that IP address then queries the website for the webpage directly. With using a proxy, your web browser will not query the website directly, but give that IP address to the proxy server. To protect against this, find other DNS servers. OpenDNS.org provides DNS for free.
Another important tidbit is that your network interface card holds its own cache of your DNS queries. Invoke the command “ipconfig /displaydns” at the command prompt. If you need to output this information to a text file then append the command with “>> Filename.txt” as in, “ipconfig /displaydns >> DNScache.txt”.
Browsers leak information, too. https://panopticlick.eff.org/ This page has been created by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as a method to raise awareness about web privacy.
The TOR Project lists their concerns regarding proxies and proxy add-ons here.https://www.torproject.org/torbutton/torbutton-faq.html.en#extensionconflicts The folks at TOR Project are experts in anonymity and offer a cutting edge service called The Onion Router. TOR is proxy-surfing taken to the next level. It’s not the perfect solution for everyone, but is worth checking out.
There are concerns and the use of proxies should not be done without understanding some of the drawbacks and security risks. Proxies can take you closer to anonymity, but are not absolute in guaranteeing it.
Protect Your Privacy on the Internet
