If you want to protect yourself when you browse the Internet, surely you have heard terms like VPN, as a proxy… but perhaps it is not clear to you what it is, what it is for, what uses or advantages it has. In that case, we will explain what a proxy is and how to use it.
If you have heard of them but it is not clear to you What advantages does its use have? or why it is a good idea to bet on one or how we can achieve it.
what is a proxy
A proxy or proxy server is a network that functions as intermediary between requests from a client to a server. When we have a proxy on our computer or device, we make the web request through it and it transfers the request to the destination web. It has a series of privacy advantages when we browse the Internet and it is a good option if you want more online requests.
Broadly speaking, the web will not see you connect to that page but rather will know the IP address of the proxy so we will achieve anonymity online and we can skip blocks, as we will see in the advantages explained in the next paragraphs.
Advantages of using a proxy
When using a proxy we get many advantages. The first thing we get is hide real ip address so we can browse anonymously and we can reduce the digital footprint on the Internet. But hiding our real IP also allows us to bypass geoblocks if we are in a country where we cannot access certain websites or applications, For example.
We also get other advantages such as greater security when connecting to the Internet, filtering potentially dangerous sitesand we also get a higher speed and shorter loading time than if we did not use it.
Difference with a VPN
The difference between a proxy and a VPN is that both fulfill the function of protecting us on the Internet. But although both hide our IP address when we connect to the network, there are differences at the level of technical characteristics or how the proxy or VPN hides us. The proxy does not encrypt the connection or the content but only hides the original IP address but the VPN is a more complete solution that creates a tunnel between us and the destination and allows us to protect our connection because it not only hides the IP address but also encrypts the content.
How to use a proxy
We can use a paid proxy service or a free one. The main advantage of seconds is that we will not have to spend money to use them but we may have more limitations or find more dangers and risks when using them. Also, we may have to share IP with other users and that carries risks depending on the other person’s use of the address.
But if we want to use a proxy, there are free services that we can use…
free proxies
One option is ProxySite, a free service that offers maximum speed and security with SSL encryption and that lets us choose between more than 25 servers between the United States and the European Union. In addition, it has other advantages such as the possibility of using bypass filters and it is very easy to use at any level.
Another of the most popular is Hide.me that has with millions of users around the world and that it provides us with privacy by making the URL expire when we close the browser. It improves the speed of our connection and it has a free version, although with many limitations, but we can use it at no cost.
Proxy para Chrome
If we want to use a proxy in the browser, we can also do it with free extensions like Oxylabs Proxy Manager. An extension that we can use free of charge in our browser and that is enough to press a button to activate a proxy that you have enabled. It is not as such a proxy for the browser but rather we can activate and deactivate it easily and it is compatible with any proxy we want.
The same happens with Proxy Switcher, which also allows us to have a button in the navigation bar of the computer and we can activate or deactivate it whenever we want, for free and changing between the ones we have as needed.
