Comparison of Free Proxies, Shared Proxies and Private Proxies

Although most proxy providers offer shared proxies to their clients, we don’t do that because shared proxies can be very unreliable and may fail when you need them the most.

You may be fine with shared proxies as long as your targets are niche, unpopular websites. But if you are hitting search engines, retailers, ticket sellers and other popular websites, chances are that shared proxies have already been banned on those websites, or at least heavily throttled.

Many users of the computer are naïve about the idea of a proxy server or the brainbox of how it works. The computing world has a lot of things in stock about networking, and the proxy is one of them. There are different things about the proxy and many people have been victims of fake proxies, unreliable proxies and unsecured proxies.

Though there are many kinds of proxy, not all of them have the same strength and effect when handling some kind of internet protocol. When you connect your PC to the internet to browse, you are the user and your IP address is the makes it possible for the source of your web request to be identified after it has been transmitted to the server. The IP address is the identity that contains large details about you thereby making it possible to put you in danger because your privacy is threatened.

So, what do you understand about a proxy server? It is simply an intermediary or middleman between a client (i.e. the user) and a server which is the host. There is actually no direct communication between the user and the host server but there is an intermediary agency that serves an iterator or interpreter. This agent is simply called a proxy server.

The purpose of this article is to ring out the differences and similarities between all the various types of proxies. Also, this article will enlighten you about what and what to expect when you decide to start using proxies. The types of proxies are three in number.

These three types of proxies have their pros and cons, and they also have some similarities between them. Comparing the various types of proxies is like comparing a telephone, smartphone and payphone. A smartphone is like a private proxy because it can only have one user at a time. A payphone is like a shared proxy because it is always in public places where people come, drop a coin or two before they can use while a telephone is like a free proxy.

Before we delve into the comparison between these three types of proxies, there is something that needs to be understood:

1. First, proxies are not very popular and promoted like VPN. The reason is that no organization will advise you to use a proxy because they know that it can be a threat to their bandwidth or viewer laws. So, using it is very good even though they don’t want to tell you.

2. Setting up a proxy-based on what you want to use it for is not an easy task. There are lots of configuration settings that need to be done. During the configuration processes, there are many options that will pop up and you have to choose between them. So, you need a service provider that has great knowledge in proxy to put you through.

3. There are certain blocked online contents, channels and podcasts that you can be able to access with the use of proxies. These contents are restricted when they detect a blocked IP address that reveals the location of the user. There are countries that ban some online sports channels that show live matches, but with the use of a proxy, you will be able to view them without any restrictions.

4. There are many free proxies out there, but the problem is that among those free proxies, some are disreputable i.e. they can’t be trusted due to some malicious components or loopholes around them. So, you need to be careful around proxies and you should also get a web expert to put you through on how you can find a trusted proxy. At times, you may even need to pay little bucks so that you can have access to trusted free proxies.

5. You should know that the connection of a proxy only works with one website at a time and a particular proxy may not be able to hide your IP address from every website. So, you should know the website you are about to trick and then use the necessary configuration for your desired proxy if you want to hide your IP address from that website.

What You Need to Know About Free Proxies

People love free things. It is a normal thing in life, most especially when those things carry great benefits and they are eventually free. Everyone will jump at the opportunity of using a free proxy because they know the importance of proxy. So, for internet users, the free proxy is the first thing they go out to get because they want to hide their identity from the website administrator.

These free proxies are very available for free and they will be of help for people with a tight budget. The free availability of these proxies is a major benefit but there is still a price that will be paid in the long run. This price is not financial in value, but it is a price that you will have to pay in one way or the other. The prices you will have to pay are the issues that arise when using the free proxy.

These issues can be detrimental and they come with huge consequences. There are drawbacks that you will encounter which may affect your user experience. So, free proxies are not reliable especially if it is a large organization that needs to bolster their security measures. These proxies are good, but they all come with some certain risks that you just need to avoid.

Genuine and free public proxies are very hard and scarce to find. A company that sets up a proxy server will not make it free because of their own security. They know that making the proxy freely available will be detrimental and threatening to their security and logistics. So many people are looking for a free proxy server but they will not know that they are at the risk of releasing their personal details to hackers and cybercriminals. Free proxies can be slow and due to the bulk of people using them and they will eventually crash because of the thousands of audience.

It is a very common fact that when certain important things are freely available for use, they are always abused in the long run. The reason is that humans will always be humans. A very good example is the SMPT Mail server. This mail server is very important and its use makes it stand out among other mail servers. This mail server cannot be freely available because of the way people abuse mail servers to send spam messages in billions and zillions.

So, when you see a free proxy server, you have to be very careful about it because any company, workspace or organization will want to secure their proxy servers from the public so that they can protect their security profile. No professional network provider will take pains to configure a proxy server and then make it freely available for public use.

If that happens, the proxies are at risk of being overrun and exploited through illegal means. Hackers will find it easy to crack a free and public proxy than a private or shared proxy. The security of the network provider will be under threats and shambles too.

Most free proxy servers do not require any form of registration or authentication. This can mean so many things. The first thing is that the proxy server may have been misconfigured and belong to someone else. The second thing is that they may have been tampered with by hackers so that they can have a very easy access to the computers of the users.

When this happens, they act as ‘zombies’ or ‘bots’ so that they can manipulate the user’s computers for their selfish gains. In either or both cases, the original owner of the computer that hosts the proxy server is never aware of what is going on.

What You Need to Know About Private Proxies

By the name itself, you can be able to judge or guess what a private proxy entails. It is used by a single individual or organization. It has lots of advantages when compared to free and public proxies. Other types of proxies may hide your IP address, but there may be some loopholes that may be exploited by hackers and cybercriminals.

On the other hand, a private proxy will perfectly protect your IP location and protect your identity on the web. The private proxy gives you complete anonymity on the web, thereby making you invincible anywhere and anytime. It helps you to surf the net without the fear of being flagged by an administrator of a website. The private proxy also enables a very fast internet speed that load pages in less than microseconds since you are the only one using this proxy.

The major reason why a private proxy is called ‘dedicated proxy’ is that there is no other person using this proxy with you. This is the main reason why you can be able to find your way around any blocked website and end up bypassing firewalls, filters and other kinds of obstacles. It is also easier to post as many requests as possible on search engines and other websites without to reveal your identity.

Large organizations and conglomerates use the private proxy because of the ultra-security and extra fast surfing benefits. These workspaces need a stable and reliable connectivity to the internet where they can have a safe and secure browsing experience. The factors that are considered for choosing a private proxy by these individuals and organizations is because of the consistency of the configuration, legal protection from dubious activities, security from hacker-owned proxy servers and a good peace of mind.

What You Need to Know About Shared Proxies

You can easily judge the meaning of this type of proxy from its name. They can be private or free proxies shared among a group of people. The group of people sharing this type of proxy makes use of a single IP address when they are using the internet.

Though there are advantages when using a shared IP address, there are also disadvantages when using it. You may experience slow and poor internet connections because you are sharing a proxy. In fact, the more the number of users, it is very likely that you will experience a poor internet connection. An impatient person will not be able to use a shared proxy.

With a shared proxy, it is very likely to get banned if a user using the shared proxy gets banned. Shared proxies may not be reliable in so many cases. The reason is that they may put you in the hands of hackers who can gain access to your computer to place a virus or malware. When you are using a shared proxy, it is advisable to have a paid premium firewall installed on your computer to prevent any attack of hackers.

This proxy is very popular among those who have a thing or two to do with game testing. Also, users of automated tools will prefer to use these proxies. The shared proxy has more tendencies to burn out faster compared to private proxies. This puts the longevity of a shared proxy into question because of the number of users sharing it.

Shared proxies are recommended for those who love to browse the web an anonymous so that they can bypass filters, restrictions and censorships. When you are using a different geo-location, it is very easy to sustain it for a very long time because of the guaranteed protection of identity and anonymity. If you like to live-stream blocked video contents either on the normal web or YouTube, it is preferable to use this type of proxy.

Finally, the ball is your court to make your decision about the kind of proxy to use. You may prefer a free proxy where your identity can be hacked, a private proxy that gives you a lot of benefits or a shared proxy that may work well for you and still falter. The ball is in your court.

• Maybe this article will help you make better decisions.