6 Basics You Need to Know About Using a Proxy Server – 2024 Guide

The Internet is probably the most useful piece of technology in the 21st century. With its help, you can access all kinds of benefits, information, data, or whatever else. It is useful for casual purposes, for individuals and businesses. But, knowing how to stay safe while browsing the Internet is also essential. Without the right tools for protection and you know how to stay secure, the Internet can be very dangerous. Because of this, a lot of experienced users and businesses use a proxy server.

However, what is a proxy server? To use this kind of technology you will first have to understand the basics about what it is, how you can use it, and what are the benefits you can gain from it.

To help clear things up on the subject and to convince people why this kind of technology is important, we decided to explain everything there is to a proxy server in this article. We hope that you will find this information useful.

What is a proxy server?

Before we can delve deeper into the subject, we believe we need to answer the most basic question first – What is it?

To put it simply, think of a proxy server as the middleman between you and a certain website. Most people and businesses will refer to this as a gateway, but the term middleman is easier to imagine.

Here is an example of how all this works. You connect to a proxy, you look for a website then the server connects to that site, takes its information, and then sends it back to you. This is a continuous process while you are browsing the website.

But, why is this useful at all? Is not it easier and faster to just access the website yourself? Yes, it is easier and it is faster, but it is not safer.

Since you are not accessing the site directly, your data is safe. Instead, your data reaches the proxy which then sends only the necessary data to the site you are browsing.

Keep in mind, this is the most basic explanation of the idea. Today it is much more complicated and offers a lot more benefits, features, including even better security.

Why should you use it?

Okay, so now you understand the basics of a proxy server, but that does not mean you have been convinced to use one. Well, let’s expand further into this and see exactly why anyone should or shouldn’t use such technology.

Extra anonymity and security

One of the main reasons why a lot of individuals (businesses too) like to use a proxy is because of the aforementioned extra privacy and security.

Some proxies even provide a fake IP address which means that a website can never know who is actually doing the browsing. By hiding your IP address, your private data and personal information are effectively more secure. This is similar to what a VPN does, but these two things are not the same. VPN goes through a lot more hoops and loops to hide your info.

But, if you want, it is possible to use proxies and a VPN at the same time for additional security. Some proxies even come combined with a VPN as seen on the best proxy reviews at hackernoon.

Naturally, this can make browsing a bit slower on your end, but if you care about anonymity, this is the way to go.

Bypass content restrictions

These days, people are not really into cable or satellite TV as online streaming platforms such as Hulu, Netflix, Disney+ and many others offer competitive pricing with better features. It’s so much more intuitive to use such an online streaming platform.

However, the main disadvantage of these platforms is the fact that many countries around the world are restricted from certain content. Either publishing companies or governments are blocking you from accessing content.

So, for example, if you want to watch the latest Avengers movie on Disney+, but you can’t because it’s blocked in your country, you can use a proxy to bypass this restriction. Proxies can easily spoof your location information. Making it look like you are located in the USA while you actually live in the United Kingdom. Simple as that.

Speed

Previously, I did mention that using proxies with a VPN together can considerably reduce the speed at which you can browse a website. However, that is not always the case, especially if you turn off the VPN.

Yes, believe it or not, but proxies can actually provide you with a better response time to a certain website than you would usually.

How? Well, since these proxies are used by millions of users across the globe, there is bound to be someone that already had accessed the site you are trying to browse. In other words, the proxy server already has information regarding this website, providing you with already processed data of the website which ultimately results in better loading speeds.

How to choose a proxy server?

The last question you might have regarding this topic is: How can I choose the right proxy server?

That is a great question because there are proxies out there that can be more dangerous than safe. Some of them might be a scam trying to strip data off your browser or even from your computer. Because of this, you will need to be very careful when picking proxies.

We advise you to check out professional reviews and individual user ratings to make sure you are not throwing yourself into a trap. Only look at the most popular options on the Internet and choose what most people are using these days. It is not worth experimenting on unknown/less popular servers.

With this information in mind, you know everything all the basics, and everything there is to proxy server. All that is left to do is to pick which one you are going to use and start browsing the Internet safer than ever.