PROXIES AND VPNS | WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

PROXIES AND VPNS | WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE

‍ Hide My Ass is a popular VPN and Proxy provider and supplies both free & premium proxies.

Proxies and VPN’s, what really is the difference? Because proxies and VPN’s ostensibly do the same job, people often considered them to be the same or at least similar.

Additionally people who have grasped the concept of proxies and VPN’s, usually conclude, “VPN’s are better than proxies but cost much more” which are absolutely correct but do not understand exactly why. Therefore, in this post I will be explaining exactly that, why VPN’s are better than proxies and what really is the difference.

Proxies

There are two type main types of proxy servers, HTTP and SOCKS though they work in a similar why there are some difference that dramatically changes there properties.

HTTP Proxies | A proxy running under the HTTP protocol interprets traffic at the HTTP level. Meaning HTTP proxies cannot be used for anything but websites. However, because of this high-level interpretation the proxy server does not have to do as much work meaning, a faster connection and more users. In addition, because of each user of the proxy server consumes very little of servers resources, many people can connect to one server at once. Furthermore, many public HTTP proxy servers are accessible at no cost.

SOCKS Proxies | Subsequently, a proxy using the SOCKS protocol interprets the connection at a much lower level, forwarding actual packets and more closely resembles a VPN. However, because the server has to interpret the individual packets, the servers’ resources are stressed much more. Nevertheless, can be used to mask any type connection whereas HTTP proxies are only good for web surfing. That being said, SOCKS proxies are not always better than HTTP being there is much slower and harder to find for free.

In general, all proxies have some similar properties. Firstly they little to no encryption maxing out at 128-bit, which means if someone really wanted to look at you traffic they could. Secondly, they have to be configured individually with software and do not mask the whole system. Lastly, almost every circumstance clever use of Flash or JavaScript can allow sites to detect your true IP and ISP peer scanners can detect and specify torrent activity.

VPN’s

VPN’s succeed where proxies fail in almost every way except for, cost. Because VPN’s support up to 2048-bit encryption they can insure maximum security, well in theory it is still possible to decrypt extremely high encryption, in practice just does not happen. These high encryptions insure that you traffic is kept absolute secret. However, some VPN hosts Keep logs making the whole point or the VPN redundant. Additionally VPNs usually have much faster speed, of course depending on the VPN supplier.

Conclusion of PROXIES and VPN

VPNs are preferred for in almost any circumstance. It provides greatly improved internet anonymity, and masks the entire system protecting you no matter what you do. In addition to this, because ISPs cannot monitor your internet activity at all under a VPN, it is an effective means of bypassing ISP throttling. But because proxies are available for free and in some circumstance that is all that is required such as, unblock text content block in your country, a proxy chosen over a VPN