How do I use a "proxy"

[jxrry59]

Reading the forums I keep coming across statements that say you need a proxy and a firewall- I did a quick google search and saw proxy servers available for different things but I am still a bit confused.
I am running a single desktop from home-should I connect to a proxy and what, exactly, does this mean and entail???

[dspeidel]

This is my thoughts on your query:
If you a single user at home I would recommend a firewall but I do not see a need for a proxy. Proxies provide three levels of functionality. They cache webpages to reduce the access time to frequently visited static web pages. The second is to prevent access of unauthorized sites -for example many employers block porn sites and external e-mail provides such as hotmail. The 3rd is logging. Who visited which sites when. I find internet performance is generally better when not going through a proxy.

It is possible that your ISP directs you through a proxy but it is just as likely that they do not. I am in no way a proxy expert but that is my understanding of what they do. If a proxy is required and the proxy is properly configured you cannot access the internet without going through it. You tell Inernet Explore to go through a proxy via tools->internet options->connection->lan settings. Mozillia is done via Edit->preferences. Opera is File->preferences.

Cheers,
-D

[jxrry59]

Thanks for the input!

[prodikal]

Depends Proxie servers hide you're ip address if you use high anonymity servers or just anonymous servers
transparent proxie servers will show you're ip when connecting to webpages ti use a proxy in mozzila go to
Edit ---> Prefrences --->Advanced --->Proxies In the part where it says http put in the address for the proxy server you want to use and put the port number you connect to the proxie server in Internet explorer go to tools (I think)
and configure it from there

Wingates

wingates are when you connect to a computer through a socks server you telnet to it and it lets you telnet out from there masking you're ipaddress if you are connectin to a remote host

Proxie chaining

Proxie chaining doesent work for me they way i read that you can chain proxies is by putting the address in proxie setting's in mozzila like 200.10.200.239:80 210.104.75.253:8080 63.241.92.45 Port80
what that is "supposed" to do is chain through the hosts the first being 200.10.200.239:80 the second being
210.104.75.253:8080 and the third and last one 63.241.92.45 and the end port of where the last proxie server goes in the part where mozzila asks you what port the proxie server is running on Now i canot get this to work does any one know why the reason i put it up here because in theroy it should work i enabled pipelineing in Mozzila and the proxy keep alive and it still doesent work so does any one know what im doing wrong or could they tell me the correct way to chain proxies ?

EDIT i forgot to tell you go to www.stayinvisible.com and it has lists of free public proxie servers

[dspeidel]

Originally posted here by prodikal
Depends Proxie servers hide you're ip address if you use high anonymity servers or just anonymous servers
transparent proxie servers will show you're ip when connecting to webpages

Good to know I thought hidding the IP address was a job for the firewall or the router.

Cheers,
-D

[rand0m.phrk]

thanks for the info....i understand proxies a little better now also....

[jxrry59]

Thanks for the input!!!

[Kerms]

Thank you! I LOVE ANTIONLINE!

[nebulus200]

Another thing to remember that proxies (at least if considered from a firewall perspective) is that they effectively change the 'fingerprint' of your system. By monkeying with various parts of the packet headers (TTL, Source IP, among others), and handling the connection both incoming and outgoing, it can monkey with tools like nmap that do system fingerprinting this way, and at the very least make the results less reliable, or even appear to be like the system actually doing the proxy....

/nebulus

[tatui]

Browsing via proxy could be useful because of the cache provided, which may speed up websurfing a lot.. and you have the "hide ip feature". An easy way to understand this kind of proxy is to imagine a messenger working for you. You write the message to someone, the messenger delivers it to him/her. The other end doesnt know that you sent the message. Same thing happens here. moreover, the messenger can be told to refuse some letters . Content filtering through proxy , though it is not the feature hundreds of script kiddies around the world (argh!) want from a proxy. I think there's no need to hide yourself from websites in most cases, and you might end up with a really slow connection. There are other proxies as well, as stated before. Transparent proxies, for example.
They are much more useful when they are in your network.


Ps. There are several sites that use PHP to load files, and sometimes its not well set, and can open stuff everywhere. This could be used to pretend you are not accessing from your IP, but its not a good thing to do. If you find a website where you may access another one using something like:
http://www.example.com/home.php?site...ereyouwanttogo
Sometimes, index.php?file= as well.
Report this to the webmaster. The last thing we need is having kiddies web-bouncing through these "I didn't want to be a proxy!"