Setting Up An Anonymous Proxy For Your Browser
by White Taipan
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[email protected] – May 26, 2003
What is a proxy server? A server that sits between a client application, such as a web browser and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as Compuserve and America Online, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.
What is the purpose of a proxy server? There are two main purposes. One purpose is to improve performance for groups of users. The second purpose, which you may be familiar with, is filtering requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites. A third, someone unknown purpose of the proxy is to allow a user to surf the web anonymously. Commonly called the Anonymous Proxy.
Now to get our hands dirty. How do I setup a proxy to browse the internet anoynmously? This depends on your browser. I will explain how to setup proxies with the two most common browsers, Mozilla and Internet Explorer.
Before you mess with any of your browser setting, you will first need to find a good proxy server. The easiest way is to use your favorite search engine and type in “proxies” or “public proxies” or something like that. You will notice many proxies use different ports. It doesn't matter too much which port you decide to use, but I recommend standardizing a port for the proxies you decide to use. If you have strict firewall settings, I suggest using port 80 proxies.
For Internet Explorer, go to Tools and select Internet Options. Next, navigate your way to the Connections tab and click on the LAN Settings button. You will see two boxes under Proxy Server. If they are grayed out, check the “Use a proxy server for your LAN...” and then proceed to enter in the server address and port. You're done! Be sure to press OK to get back to the web.
For Mozilla, go to Edit and select Preferences. Next, click on the drop down menu for Advanced and click on Proxies. Select the “Manual Proxy Configuration” radio button. Enter in the server address under “HTTP Proxy” and the port in the box to the right of it. Click “Okay” and you're all set to anonymously surf the web!
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