What is a proxy?
A proxy server is a middleman that sits between you and the websites you visit. Instead of your browser talking to a website directly, it hands the request to the proxy, and the proxy fetches the page for you.
Because the request now comes from the proxy, the website sees the proxy's IP address instead of yours. That is why people use proxies to change their apparent location or to get around simple network blocks.
What a proxy usually does not do is encrypt anything. Unlike a VPN, it mostly just forwards your traffic, and it only works for the app you set up to use it, not your whole device.
Here is the same visit to a website, once directly and once through a proxy. Watch what changes for the website, and what does not change for your ISP.
Without a proxy
With a proxy
How a proxy works
Step by step
You point your app at the proxy
A proxy does not switch itself on for your whole device. You type its address and port into your browser or another app, and from then on that app sends its web requests to the proxy instead of straight to the website.
Your request goes to the proxy first
When you open a site, your browser hands the request to the proxy. It still passes through your Wi-Fi and your ISP on the way, and because most proxies do not encrypt this part of the trip, they can usually still see which site you asked for. HTTPS keeps the page itself and what you type private.
The proxy asks for the page on your behalf
The proxy then contacts the website using its own connection. The website only sees the proxy's IP address, so as far as it is concerned, the visit came from wherever the proxy is.
The page comes back through the proxy
The website sends the page to the proxy, and the proxy passes it back to your browser. Some proxies also keep a copy, so the next person on the same network who asks for that page gets it faster.
A proxy only covers the app you set up
Setting a proxy in your browser does nothing for the rest of your device. Other apps keep connecting directly, so the servers they talk to still see your real IP address.
Your browser, set up to use the proxy
Every other app on the same device
Similar on the surface, different underneath
Both hide your IP address from websites, which is why they get mixed up. The difference is what happens before your traffic reaches them, so tap the laptop to compare who can see what.
The proxies you are likely to run into
- HTTP proxy
- Set up in your browser or system settings, it handles web traffic. It can see the address of every site you open, and everything on plain HTTP pages.
- SOCKS5 proxy
- A more general proxy that apps like torrent clients and some games can use. It forwards almost any kind of traffic, but it does not encrypt it.
- Transparent proxy
- Set up by a school, office or internet provider on the network itself, often without you noticing. It is common for filtering and caching.
- Reverse proxy
- Sits in front of websites rather than people. Services like Cloudflare use them to speed sites up and absorb attacks, and visitors never set anything up.
What a proxy does and does not do
A proxy does
- Show websites the proxy's IP address instead of yours
- Help you get around simple blocks on a network
- Save bandwidth by caching pages on office and school networks
A proxy does not
- Encrypt your traffic, in most cases
- Cover apps you have not set up to use it
- Hide the sites you visit from your ISP, unless the proxy connection itself is encrypted
A proxy is a simple middleman. It changes the IP address a website sees for the app you set up, but it usually does not encrypt anything or cover the rest of your device. If you want your whole connection protected, a VPN is the better tool, and be careful with free public proxies, since whoever runs them can see, and even change, any traffic that is not encrypted.
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