What is a Proxy
Introduction
In this post ” What is a Proxy ” I’m going to talk about three things which are explaining what is a proxy server, How does it work, and Why should we use it. These important questions need to be answered and explaining how are they really important.
What is a Proxy Server?
It is like having another computer to which you send internet access requests first before you reach the real website you want to access. It is a server (a server is a computer dedicated to performing certain services) that takes all the information sent from you. For example, ordering a shirt from a store and redirects it to a different IP address.
IP is an abbreviation of a protocol that regulates the labeling of network-related devices by several digital segments.
What makes the Proxy so powerful?
Its ability to show all of your online operations as if they came from somewhere else but your current location.
Companies use this for safety and network performance. On the other hand, individuals use it for privacy reasons. There are several other great uses you can use when you browse the Internet that I’ll take later about it.
You can install it anywhere. For example, on your home computer or even on the cloud, but what is important is that the proxy is installed according to the use you want. Just remember that proxy works as a fake filter for IP addresses and there are several types of it.
How does a Proxy work?
When you hear or see people talking about proxy, they often talk about forward-type proxy. It is the most common type to easily accommodate most of their requirements. This type acts as an intermediary between request access and the server you’re trying to connect to.
The way a proxy works is as follows:
Create an access request that uses HTTP or HTTPS protocol.
An Example: You are trying to access the GitHub site, you must type the URL in the browser and press Enter. In the case of a proxy, you will not directly connect to the GitHub site by your computer’S IP address but will intercept the connection request by the Proxy.
It will then take your request, update it, and then send it to the proxy’S IP address. Often removing the IP address and link information of your computer from the request to the GitHub server.
One way a proxy updates access requests is to make changes directly to the sent request headers. Where it sets headers such as forward or Via (as well as other types of headers that can be used) in the original request before resending it to the server of the website to be accessed.
Once the proxy updates the information about your request, your updated request will be sent to the GitHub server. Then, the server will think that your request is sent from another place, where it will send the data you want to the same place (which is the IP address of the proxy server).
After the required data arrives from the GitHub server, the proxy checks it for viruses or security problems. Then, finally sends it to your computer, and the browser loads the GitHub page.
The Proxy server is not necessarily used by one user at a time. Multiple requests can be sent by multiple users on the same proxy. And all benefit from the same features at once.
Why should you use a proxy?
Causes of using
Now that you know what is proxy and how it works, it’s good to learn the causes of its most common use:
- Increase network security by encrypting requests, prevent hackers from intercepting sensitive data, and block access to malware sites.
- Reducing the amount of data that passes through the network by caching the caching of sites. Thus, allowing only one request to access that site regardless of the number of proxy users wishing to access it.
- Controlling how you use the internet by blocking specific sites as well as monitoring and recording all online access requests.
- You can bypass the ban by companies, countries, and access content from a different country as well as circumvent firewalls companies.
Features
This is not an exhaustive list of what can be done using a proxy, but some other features can be added:
- Cookies will always be prohibited.
- Ads will always be banned.
- Prepare research on your competitors.
- Deep web accessibility (deep web) which are sites and services on the internet that do not appear in search engines.
- Remove the trace of every search you have done and prevent the tracking of your old research.
- The possibility of data extraction (the process of importing information from a website and saving it as files).
Conclusion
To sum up our post, we gave you a big picture about the proxy, how it works, and how powerful it is. Finally, why should we use it in our life when we use our computers.
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