About
Public proxy servers are generally computer proxy nodes on the open internet that require no password to access. There are four different types of public proxy servers…
1.VPN also known as a virtual private network proxy.
2.Web proxy.
3.Socks proxy.
4.Transparent proxy.
Lets go over the different types of public proxy servers listed above on by one to get a better understanding on them and which type is best for you.
A VPN (virtual private network) proxy is more of a completely new virtual network connection to your entire computer. Obviously without your current physical network connection you will have no way of creating a virtual connection that piggybacks on your current connection. But this virtual connection makes it appear to your computer that is connected locally to the remote network far away.
Most of the time you will create a VPN connection to access data on your local network area when out of the office or that network is not normally accessible. This can be handy when you need access to your files on your computer when not actually being on your computer isn’t possible. You would setup the VPN connection with your router on the LANs internet connection. And then when ready to connect you would need the domain or ip address and username and password to login remotely.
A web proxy is usually one of the most public types of proxies you should expect to find on the internet. Web proxies are usually hosted on an internet website server like a website. The will have a place for you to enter a url and set basic settings like enabling and disabling cookies, javascript, url encoding etc. Some are secure and good safe way to unblock websites at work or school. But be careful on any proxy that isn’t private to not enter any personal information and passwords. As some record your sensitive information and are just a honey pot for this information.
Web proxies are pretty straight forward. They require no software to install or custom configurations on your end. But if one is blocked you will have to try and find one that isn’t. Be prepared to be bombared by advertisers, popups, and popunder ads in your browser. If it wasn’t for advertisements most of these web proxies would not be around because it takes money to put any proxy up.
The next on the list are the socks proxies which are for the most part configured in the proxy settings of your web browser to connect to them on the internet as a gateway. There are many different breads of socks proxies to say the least. You will also find a ton of lists of socks proxies on the internet. Many you will find in lists on the internet not working. Its usually the ones in the list on the internet to be cautious of before you use them because they are free and you don’t know who set them up.
Some of the socks proxies on the internet are setup actually by malware or viruses people end up downloading and they unknowingly end up hosting a socks proxy. These can be flaky as they might be recording your personal information sent through proxy. The reasons the socks proxy may not work are they user detecting them and having been able to successfully removing the malware / virus that caused the socks proxy. Also a socks proxy that is actually good and not recording your personal stuff etc may at the current moment be just overloaded and over there connection limit. Universities and high tech companies commonly setup socks proxy servers on the internet and there network campus. These are the good socks proxies and they do exist so that you dont get the impression that all socks proxies are bad and dangerous.
Last but far from least in the list of public proxy servers is a transparent proxy. This might confuse some as to what a transparent but in short it is a proxy with a cache. And if your requested page is already cached it will serve the cached file(s) instead of the one the internet. Transparent are often used in work environments and schools campuses etc to accelerate request over the network. And also prevent an internet network connection from becoming overloaded and slowing down. Transparent proxies are not normally used to unblock websites. Some even do the filtering for a school or campus internet network to keep good sites in and whatever is defined by the proxy filter out.
A transparent proxy will be public to all on the local network as it is usually the gateway to the internet on the local network.