subject: What Is An Anonymous Proxy? Making Sense Of Anonymity And Proxy Servers [print this page] What's an anonymous proxy? There are many kind of proxy servers, but the most sought after are so-called anonymous proxy servers. Most proxies are used by people because they allow you to bypass some kind of internet block. This could be caused by your school or work place. It may even be caused by a website blocking an IP from the country you live in. The basic purpose of a proxy is to remove this block and or change your IP. Doing this makes it appear as though you are a person living in another city and or country. But does this mean you are anonymous?
What makes a proxy server anonymous? The level of anonymity for proxy servers varies. There are three levels of anonymity. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and even Level 4. These levels exist only because certain software uses them to classify the level of anonymity of a proxy. The most common levels are 1 through 3. What makes them different from each other? The level of anonymity is based on how anonymous the proxy is. Does the proxy server reveal your true IP? If so, then it isn't anonymous and it will be classified as Level 3 or 4. Level 1 and 2 are reserved for proxies that are anonymous and achieve this by preventing a website from detecting your real IP.
If you want a proxy that is anonymous then be sure that you are using Level 1 or Level 2. If you rent your proxies then ask your supplier what level the proxies are. If you find your own then be sure to use the proper software to test and evaluate the proxies to find out their level of anonymity. To make things even more confusing there are actually different kinds of Level 1 anonymous proxies. I won't go into this here but it depends on how exclusive the proxy is. If you are using a shared proxy, then it is still anonymous but not considered the best. The best proxies which are utterly exclusive and only used by one person are referred to as elite proxies.
