What is VPN, Proxy, Tor? Parsing
Anonymity and privacy are great concepts. But lately there is a feeling that both concepts of styles are unattainable on the net. Therefore, even I, not at all paranoid, occasionally think about tools such as VPN, Proxy and Tor. You’ve probably heard these words, and maybe even regularly use these technologies to maintain anonymity, bypass locks, watch American Netflix, or simply to access the corporate network.
But how exactly do these technologies work and how do they differ? And is it true that free cheese is only in a mousetrap? Today we’ll talk about how to protect yourself and your data on a global network.
Proxy
Among the trinity – VPN, Proxy, Tor – the simplest technology is Proxy. Let’s start with her.
Proxy is translated from English as a representative, authorized, intermediary. In other words, a proxy server is an intermediary server.
The technology works as simple as it sounds. Imagine your network traffic is a suitcase. You want to deliver this suitcase to a specific address, but you would not want to do it yourself, revealing your location and name. Therefore, you hire an intermediary who will deliver the suitcase himself to the desired address without revealing your identity and real address. Simple and convenient. Moreover, such intermediaries are quite multifunctional and will come in handy not only for trivially ensuring privacy on the network:
By changing your location using Proxy, you can bypass regional blockages. For example, it was the proxy servers that allowed Telegram to survive several years of official blocking so easily.
Or you may be able to access content that is only available in certain countries. For example, to the American library Netflix, which is much more extensive than our domestic one.
Or you can save on airfare by taking advantage of regional price offers or discounts.
But there may be a reverse situation. If necessary, using a proxy, network administrators can restrict access to certain resources.
There are also less obvious use cases. Proxy servers often cache data from popular sites, so downloading data through a proxy server can speed up access to these resources.
Or you can save traffic. Because proxies can compress all requested content. This is how the various turbo and economy modes work in browsers.
In general, there are a lot of options for using proxy servers. And this is the positive side of the technology, but proxy servers also have significant drawbacks.
