What is a proxy server?

A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing (e.g. Web sites or FTP archives). The data you request comes to the proxy first, and only then it transmits the data to you.

  What is the use of proxy servers?

Usually, such servers are used to increase the effective speed of your connection to the Internet, because they save files that are requested most often in a special database called "cache". The cache of a proxy server is generally huge in its capacity, and contains not only the requests made by you, but also the files that have been requested by hundreds, if not thousands, of other Internet users. As a result, the information you need may already be present in cache by the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy to deliver it immidiately. The overall increase in performance may be very high. 

Besides that, proxy servers can help in cases when, for example, the owners of the Internet resource impose some restrictions on users from certain countries or geographic regions.

  What is an anonymous proxy?

By using your IP address, any Web site can track your movements through its pages and monitor your reading interests. Depending on the rules of the Internet resource, you may not be able to get access to the information you need. Also, your visit can be registered and used later to gather some personal information about you.

It is widely agreed that governments and organizations publish dummy websites on controversial topics for the purpose of monitoring interested parties. Also, this information, in combination with your e-mail address, can be used to increase the number of targeted advertisements fired at you by the marketers.

By using only your IP address and your operating system type, a Web site can automatically exploit security holes in your system using some not-very-complex, ready-made, free hacking programs. Some of such programs may just hang your machine, making you reboot it, but other, more powerful ones, can get access to the content of your hard drive or RAM. The Anonymous proxy prevents this by hiding your IP address so that no one can access your computer via the network.

Local proxy software A4Proxy hides your IP address by using a set of anonymous proxies, leaving the potential intruder without the information that is vital to the success of any hacking attempts - without your actual IP address. The Web site only can see that it is visited by a proxy, and has no means of getting the IP address of the original source of the request (your computer).

In most cases, however, the proxy does inform the target server by what computer the request is originally made, and does transmit your IP-address to it in different formats.

Example: How a non-anonymous proxy works

	request		request
Your computer IP: 192.168.1.1		Non-Anonymous Proxy IP: 192.168.21.21	Forwarder for: 192.168.1.1 Via: 192.168.21.21:8080 (Squid/2.1.PATCH2)	Target server Remote IP: 192.168.21.21 Client IP: 192.168.1.1

An anonymous proxy does not transfer the information about the IP-address of the client, and thus effectively hides the information about you and your surfing over Internet. Besides that proxy can not inform that request was made through it.

Anonymous proxy can be used for different Web-services, such as Web-Mail (HotMail, Yahoo), chats...

  Is the "anonymous proxy" I came across on the INet really an anonymous one?

Most probably, No. I have studied more than 8,000 public proxies (almost half of them call themselves "anonymous", because the do not transfer in the standard way the client's IP address, but, nevertheless the address is present in their requests in other different forms).

Besides, I found that some proxies transfer the IP address of the client occasionally, from time to time.

  Public Proxy Statistics

About 50% of all existing public proxies are not anonymous

  What is the program ANONYMITY 4 PROXY (A4P) intended for?