What is a proxy and how to use it

A proxy server is a kind of configuration for many programs, which implies the ability to connect to Internet nodes using some kind of “intermediary” than a proxy and is both in practice and literally in translation.

How to use a proxy and why

Ignorant people will immediately have a question: what does it mean to use a proxy? In fact, we configure our system and applications in such a way that all outgoing traffic from our PC goes to the proxy server, and only then to the target host or site. The same situation is with incoming traffic – first it goes to the proxy server and then to the user’s computer.

Let’s move on to the following question: why use the proxy settings. If the user has not encountered such a problem before, we can give the following examples:

• to improve the quality of the connection;
• to reduce node response time, optimize pinging;
• for anonymity.

In the case of a higher level, how to use a proxy server, this applies:

• the ability to bypass the network administrator’s ban and access sites that are banned by the network administrator;
• the ability to access resources that have been blocked by the user’s ip address;
• the ability to access a particular host at all times, the ability to send requests without having to pause or change your own ip (for example, for hacker attacks).

There are other examples for using a proxy server.

Other options for adding a proxy server and for what purpose

An example of such an example would be a communication program. Frequent poor communication quality, signal loss, interference and call disruption can be the reason why you should use a fast proxy server.

When you set up a Skype proxy server, you can significantly improve the quality of communication, eliminate breaks, loss of the interlocutor or “sticking”. The quality of the call will be much higher than in the normal mode. But only if you choose a proxy of good quality.

Quote: A good proxy server is one that has a high inbound and outbound speed, low ping.

Otherwise, it is not possible to improve, but rather to worsen the work of the program.

Often, the proxy server for Skype is set up automatically. More precisely – the program itself can determine the presence of connection to the proxy server and independently configure all its parameters to connect to it. After confirming that the settings have been saved by the program, the user is recommended to make a test call to check the quality of communication, absence of interference and problems. If everything is done correctly, the configuration is done correctly, then communication should work without any problems. But, unfortunately, in most cases Skype can not carry out automatic configuration – the user will have to deal with it independently.

If Skype does not work through a proxy, you need to configure it manually. To do this, open the context menu and go to the settings or parameters (depending on the version of the program used by the user). Find a connection point or connection and find server connection and configuration points. There manually enter the address of access to the server, and if necessary, the authorization parameters. After that we check the program operation, remembering to save the changes made to the settings beforehand.

Using proxies in Firefox and other browsers

The Proxy server can also be used when working with browsers or surfing the web. There can be many reasons and examples for this:

• If you register a proxy server, you will be able to remain anonymous;
• to access sites where your ip address or the addresses of your ISP are blocked;
• to access the site under another country’s ip address or simply to access it under another ip.

The closest example of this is the case of blocking Vk and Mail sites for Ukrainian users. You can use a proxy to access these sites. In this case, you can easily login to the site, and logging into your own account

Quotation: Changing the ip address easily bypasses the lock.

Another example is the blocking of the user by ip on the site-forum. In this case, if your firefox is configured to use a proxy server (or any other browser has similar settings), you will be able to access the site, log into your own account and continue communication (it is worth mentioning that in this case, proxy users prefer to use a different account, create it, otherwise the blocking can be done directly to the account, and in this case, the use of proxy server will not help).

How to register a proxy server

There are two options for configuring your browser to work under a proxy server. They differ only in one case: in the first case, the user has to manually register all addresses and settings in the corresponding lines, and in the second case, you can use automatic configuration through the file with the prepared configurations. In the first case, we go to the browser settings and find items related to the network or connection. Next, we need to find the connection points through the proxy server or call lines through a separate node. That’s where we put the necessary addresses. Another way to prescribe a proxy in a browser is to use automatic configuration pac files. To do this, we need to specify the path to the file in the same settings. There are two ways to locate files and paths to them. The first is the local location of the file (on your computer and your hard drive), and the second is on a remote server. Having chosen the appropriate option, we choose the path and confirm our choice. After that the browser will work under the proxy server and all requests, as well as incoming traffic, will be executed only through the proxy server.

In case you want to set up a proxy server in Windows 7, you should immediately specify that such settings will be made not for the whole system at once, but for internet explorer installed in the operating system.

To do this, go through the start button in the control panel, find the properties of the browser, the item “Network” and select “Use a proxy server for protocols”. In this very point we specify all the settings.

After the made manipulations in case of absence of errors of adjustment we can surf and visit any resources absolutely anonymously.

It should be noted that in order to optimize the work it is necessary to disable the use of a proxy server and compare the speed of work with it and without it.

Quote: To compare the speed with the proxy turned on and off, you need to visit websites to measure speed (for example, 2ip. ru). There you can get the exact values of both speed and ping.

Recommend that you try multiple servers. In the process of comparison, you can find the optimal speed and time of access to the nodes. It is recommended to use it to increase the speed of the Network (it is worth noting that not all servers can offer high speed and anonymity).