Many times it happens with internet users that they cannot access a website because of certain logical or sometimes illogical restrictions. This can get irritating and annoying if you're are trying to find something important and your access is blocked.
That is where proxy servers or proxy sites (as they are commonly called) come in handy. They allow you to access these blocked websites by anonymously redirecting you through their own certifications and validations. These proxy servers act as hidden providers of access. Check our detailed SmartProxy review to get an insider view of this reliable proxy provider.
A proxy server is just like a dedicated computer which is running on your computer to act as the intermediary between the computer and the server from where you have requested the service. Now, if the proxy server is available on the same machine then it is called as firewall server and if it on a separate server which forward requests then it is called as a firewall.
Also, the proxy servers store the cache which helps to reduce the user response time. If many Internet sites are requested at once, then they store the cache and log its interactions for troubleshooting. let's see the list of the best of such sites. You can also pay VPN services to surf anonymously.
There are numerous proxy servers or sites on the internet and they come in handy when you need them.
WHAT ARE PROXY SERVERS AND WHY TO USE THEM?
The website is not available in all the countries and is banned or blocked in some. If it is blocked in your country then you won't be able to access the website. The similar thing happens because YouTube is mostly blocked in schools, colleges, and offices as well but there are ways to unblock YouTube and access it. In many schools, universities, colleges or organization some sites are blocked they can be only accessed via Proxy sites or servers.
According to WikiPedia, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers.
The most important reason you should start using the top best free proxy sites is that it not only helps you in accessing the blocked websites but it also allows you to surf the Internet anonymously. So nobody can track you online. So when you visit any website, none of your information will be collected and stored. Also cookies injection or no stealing of inofrmation. Many companies use your browsing data to make a business out of it. Now that you know the advantages and benefits of using proxy servers, let's see the list of the best of such sites. You can also pay VPN services to surf anonymously.
How does it work?
It is quite simple if the Internet request is raised then the proxy server look for the address in its local cache, if the address is found then it returns the same to the user. If the address is not available in the local cache then it requests the page to the server using its own IP address, if the page is returned then the proxy server returns the same to the user and saves it to it local cache for future reference.
Again it's a technology so it can be a boon or bane. For an enterprise, the proxy servers are used for administrative controls and caching services but for the personal computing purpose, it is used for anonymous surfing.
There are various types of proxy servers available:
Forward Proxy: Forward proxy forwards the requests of the user to the web server and the users can directly access the web page by changing their internet settings. It also allows the firewall which increases the privacy and security.
Reverse Proxy: Reverse proxies handles the requests for the users on the destination servers which help to access the website when it disallows the connections to the servers. Reverse proxies also disable the users to view some websites because of illegal content.
Anonymous proxies: Anonymous proxies hide the IP address of the user and allow them to view the blocked websites by blocking the firewalls and IP bans. They also can be used for enhanced privacy.
There is the list of anonymous proxies listed below in the post.
Transparent proxies: Transparent proxies are also stated as the proxies with the centralized traffic. It is used in the corporate networks, where the proxy is associated with the separate network which apart it from the external network. It also acts as a firewall which is used to scan the data for the security purpose before delivering the request of the user to the network. These proxies are helpful for the corporate to administer the traffic on the network because the corporate devices are generally safe and they should be intruded to perform the mundane tasks.
DNS Proxies: DNS proxies are generally used to forward the domain name service requests from the user's LAN to the internet DNS which is cached for the enhanced user speed reduction.
Highly anonymous proxies: Highly anonymous proxies are generally used by the clients who hide their IP address. This type of proxies generally presents the non-proxy IP address. Not only they hide the IP address of the client but it also allows the access to the sites that block proxy servers.
Socks 4 and 5 proxies: Socks proxies comes with the Socks protocol which looks for the DNS operations to the web traffic.
How to hack the proxies?
The hacker tries to steal the hits from the web page, search page results and from the search engines index. So, the hackers will either have the fraudulent site which will replicate the original site or any other requesting page.
So, the attacker will copy the web page and use keyword stuffing methods to copy the page from the external sites which will raise the search engine ranking. The original web page will rank lower and it will be seen as the duplicate content which will enable the search engine to remove it from their index.
This type of proxy hacking can be dangerous if the attacker is in the mood of delivering the malicious content. They can hack and redirect the users on the fake banking site which will steal the account info and can be used to steal the funds from your content. Also, it can be used to redirect the users to malware injected site which will hack your machine.
There are various plugins and tools which reveals the proxy address, so the proxy servers should not be used on the untrusted sites.
Measures
If you are the victim of the proxy hacking then you must take the preventive measures like avoiding the use of open proxies, load balancing, secured authorization, and other factors. Nowadays, the proxies are easily hacked as there are a lot of hacks available and the attackers are earning huge by just injecting the malware into your computer and hacking all your personal information.
So, you must be careful while dealing with the proxy servers as it can land you in a trouble which will also be trouble for other users who are communicating with you on the regular basis.
Here is a list of 130 free proxy servers with Top Anonymous Proxies 2022
More about the Luminati proxy network
1) HideMyAss
This is hot shot proxy site which offers high speed and highly secure services. It lets you access content anonymously from USA, UK and Canada.
It boasts of allowing its users to appear from 1300 different locations. That alone guarantees security and anonymity. It protects your identity and offers smooth surfing.
It lets you penetrate some serious firewalls and access the desired content.
Both these proxy services offer unlimited and high-speed bandwidth along with high security and guaranteed anonymity.
Where many proxies do not work with sites like Facebook, this one does.
Again three very similar portals offering unlimited bandwidth and highly secure and anonymous surfing
A very remote proxy offers unblocked surfing of the net at high speeds.
It uses secure SSL encryption which makes it very hard to block thus guaranteeing hassle free internet surfing and complete anonymity
Apart from other common features, it offers tools and guides to help you maintain your privacy online and surf the web unrestricted.
It offers tools like changing your location without being noticed and further identity protection. This enables the user to gain unprecedented access to restricted data.
Another proxy offering SSL encryption and high bandwidth, it allows you unrestricted access.
If offers a wide range of unblocking across all sorts of websites.
It guarantees that it can unblock access to any website.
It works by scrambling your IP with its own so that your identity is secure and you can gain access where restricted.
Works in the same manner as the above two.
Allows unrestricted access to a wide variety of websites.
If YouTube access is restricted from your IP, then these two proxies are what you need. They guarantee access to the site in any blocked environment.
Same as the above but works for sites other than YouTube
A rising American proxy site which allows unrestricted web access to its users.
Another proxy service for unblocking YouTube
It is a very remote and easily accessible proxy.
Believing in open information and unrestricted access, they work towards providing free, fast and smooth proxy services.
US based proxy service, offering unrestricted access in many environments.
Another proxy to unblock YouTube Access
It conceals your IP and promises unrestricted access to websites and portals from various locations.
One of the top web proxy servers in the UK, it provides users with hassle-free access to numerous restricted websites.
It has a very wide variety of website to which it offers and guarantees safe and secure access with complete anonymity.
Working majorly in the UK and some other parts of the globe, this proxy offers the same features as any other.
UK based YouTube Unblocking proxy
It guaranteed unrestricted access to many sites. The user just has to go to their page and enter the URL. The rest happens by itself and is completely anonymous and secure.
It is a big proxy service provider in Asia and guarantees unrestricted an secure access to many websites.
Another UK based proxy site with the same overall features.
It guarantees that it can unblock any website in any environment.
It automatically changes your IP address and secures your personal information while providing your high speed and secure access to all restricted domains.
It offers customized choices from which the user can pick the degree of security and anonymity he wants.
Guarantees unrestricted access to YouTube and Facebook
Guarantees unrestricted access in the toughest of blocked environments
Based in LA, it offers proxy services all across the globe thus providing highly secure and anonymous surfing facilities for its users.
Another all access proxy service with high speed bandwidth and secure access
Another UK based leading proxy service provider which guarantees unrestricted access to a variety of domains.
Another proxy service to unblock YouTube for you in the most restricted of environments
Another set of services which specialise in concealing your identity
UK based proxy service which guarantees unrestricted access and anonymity in the mosr restricted scenarios.
Another UK based proxy service site with the same common features
We discussed its US version earlier. The UK version has become increasingly popular and hosts a number of proxy services like the former.
Another set of proxy servers allowing unrestricted access. They are only available on select locations.
Based in Czech Republic, this server is quite powerful. It claims to be capable to accessing the most secure sites in the most restricted environments like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.
Another very remote service offering variety of proxy tools
Two very simple servers which offer a wide range of proxy services including privacy protection and unlimited bandwidth
This service also claims to be able to break into any kind of restricted access.
Moving further the list goes on till number 100 but all these servers have almost the same features of unlimited bandwidth, unrestricted access, complete privacy and anonymity along with high speed and smooth surfing. You can continue reading the list and click on the names to be redirected to the site.
Proxy servers: Brief historyLet's focus more on proxy servers. Proxies were initially invented to establish a reliable connection between distributed computer systems and the internet. In short, the primary purpose was to give a structure to distributed systems.
This is what it was intended to do when it was first created, but as the world of internet has developed so rapidly, these proxy servers have come pretty far from that function and have developed into full fledge technical intermediates that have greatly simplified the complex task of researching and information gathering over the internet.
Proxy Servers today enable millions of peoples and businesses across the globe to easily look up information for their projects and assignments with the simple push of a few keys. Think of it like a stockbroker who takes your shares and invests them in the right company during the share market runs. Thus, acting as an intermediate connection between you and the company on whom your stocks are being invested upon.
Anonymous Browsing to protect your privacyAnonymous open proxy servers are the ones that allow users to conceal their IP address while using Internet services or browsing the web. There are varying degrees of anonymity and 'tricking' the client into revealing itself regardless of the proxy and location being used. So, in this regard, many visitors use a free or paid Forward Proxy Server for masking their IP address to access Z (The web server) they wish to visit.
More functions of Forward proxiesA forward proxy has been configured to handle or process the requests of clients under the control of a local administrator. The server would then pass on these requests to a group of resources that are beyond the administrator's control.
Let us suppose a waiter is serving the customers at a restaurant. The waiter acts as a proxy server and takes the orders of different customers and passes them onto the chef, who is the website you wish to visit. The chef then prepares the food, hands it back to the waiter who serves it to the customers. So in short, s forward proxy is essentially the same as a regular proxy.
The term "reverse" originated as a counterpart to "forward proxy". The reverse proxy serves only a restricted set of websites and sits closer to the web server. A reverse proxy also commonly termed as a surrogate proxy is a proxy server that forwards requests to one or more ordinary servers which handle the requests.
Image Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org
The response from the proxy server is returned as if it came directly from the original server. This directly results in the client having no knowledge of the origin servers as a result. All traffic coming from the Internet going through a neighborhood's web server goes through the proxy server.
The administrator of web server use Reverse Proxy servers to
Let's take the example of 3 devices connected to the Internet once again, to understand reverse proxy in simple terms.
Imagine 3 components:
In normal circumstances, that is in the absence of a mediating proxy server, the user would connect directly from X to Z. However, in some scenarios admin of Z can block direct access to X and go through a proxy Y first. Just like in the case of a forward proxy, data is being retrieved by Y to Z on behalf of X.
Now you must be confused as this may seem the same as a forward proxy. It may look like that, but here's the crux of it. The user, in this case, connecting to Z does not know he's accessing Z (the website), because he's only communicating with Y. In other words, we can state that the server Z is invisible to the user X and he is interacting only with Y, which is visible to it externally. Thus, a reverse proxy does not need a proxy configuration from the client's side. The client, in this case, believes that he is interacting only with Y. Whereas Y is actually forwarding all its communications to Z.
Now let me tell you why would one want to use a reverse proxy?
- Z wants to make sure all the visitors that visit its site are forced to pass through Y first. Reverse proxies are popularly used by Content Distribution Networks Majority of the popular sites employ this to increase speed. In this case, the user will be sent to the server closest to Z which Z set up.
- Many website admins (Z) often fear that exposing the main server directly to the users may open it up to intruders to the content hosted. Thus they employ a reverse proxy (Y) that mediates between Z and the user (X).
Types of proxies
Since there are different types of proxies, they all work in different ways. It's important to understand exactly what functionality you're getting from the proxy server. Proxy servers itself is a broad term that can be classified into numerous types and categories. The 4 major classifications of proxy servers are:
A general proxy server usually masks the IP address of the user, but a transparent proxy will still pass along your IP address, thus providing complete transparency and identifying you to the web server. Businesses, schools, and universities quite often use transparent proxies in their network model for content filtering and monitoring the internet activities of the users.
An anonymous proxy will identify itself as a proxy, but prevent identity theft by masking your IP address to the website, thus keeping your browsing habits. This prevents anyone from looking up your online activity by acting as a shield between you and the website you are accessing. Though not a 100% guarantee, browsing anonymously will prevent a website from serving you targeted marketing content based on your location.
Serving a purpose similar to that of an anonymous proxy, distorting proxy server passes along a false IP address for you while identifying itself as a proxy. In simple words, it masks your IP address by passing a false IP address. Using a distorting server you can appear to be from a different location to get around content restrictions.
While a distorting proxy masks your IP address with a fake one, High Anonymity proxy servers periodically change the IP address they present to the web server. This makes it very difficult to keep track of what traffic belongs to whom and the most private and secure way to read the internet.
Quick Links:
HTTP and SOCKS proxies
The most commercially used types of proxies are HTTP and SOCKS proxies. Other than these, there are other popular types of proxy servers like DNS proxy, DataCenter IP proxy, Residential IP proxy, Web proxy, CGI proxy and more.
As the name clearly suggests, an HTTP proxy is a proxy server which process the HTTP(S) requests, which use the format the IP: Port. It only handles the web applications which are named by others as web proxy server. HTTP proxy servers are popularly used by businesses, banking and government websites because it provides an extra layer of security as it prevents the users from directly reaching the actual web servers.
The only requests that are sent through are certain IPs and ports of the users. The request made by the client in these proxies is passed on in the form of a complete URL. When this URL is passed on, the proxy makes the request more specific in order to retrieve the most relevant search results only.
A Socks Proxy or a Socks Server is a general purpose proxy server possessing the capability to route and reroute traffic back and forth between the client and the external server to which the requests are sent. This action is executed by means of a special connection known as a TCP connection. A SOCKS proxy server can cater to any network protocol including HTTP, thus making it a very versatile and efficient server to be used.
However, the Socks Proxy regulates the request of the web URL as it is without making any changes to it, unlike the Web Proxy server, which makes the URL requests more specific. The most popular commercial application of such servers is to by-pass firewalls in order to access programs on an external resource.
HTTP vs SOCKS proxy
Though both HTTP & SOCKS proxies possess similar functionalities, their application and preference among different groups of users vary greatly. Users tend to choose between the two depending on the speed factor. But in reality, there's only a very slight speed difference between the two. The speed of any proxy server you use entirely depends on the company providing these technologies.
SOCKS technology are mostly preferred over HTTPs when it comes to coding since SOCKS is much simpler. SOCKS proxies don't have much code and can transfer & download data slightly faster as compared to HTTP.
Other Proxy servers
DataCenter proxies provide IP address from company or Corporate of Hosting or another web service. Popular examples of such web services are, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure Cloud, Vultr, DigitalOcean and so on. This system works as an IP hub, since corporate rent lots of IPs and get the fastest and stable Internet connection from Internet Service Provider (ISP).
As a result of this, lots of proxy providers or marketers rent the dedicated server and set up the proxy server on a dedicated server. The rent amount of each IP proxy varies around $2.
Pros- Get the fastest Speed of proxy
- Easy to use with a fixed IP: Port
- Most stable and nearly 100% Uptime
- The IP address may be marked and blocked by some websites, like sneaker website, Tickets Site
Residential proxies are the most common form of proxies when it comes to providing IP address to anyone who uses the internet including an individual or a business from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that is wired directly into your home or to a cable or DSL. Anyone who uses the internet requires a residential IP address.
In the case of a residential IP proxy, the proxy provider will be lending you its IP address when the user makes use of the residential IP proxy, as it connects you to its ISP. So if you are renting their IP address, you are borrowing the address and location of the ISP provider, keeping own location secret and safe.
Pros- Hard to detect the Residential IP Proxy
- No need to care the IP/IP address be banned
- Getaway proxy server Rotate the IPs all the time
- Speed is slower than a dedicated proxy
- Hard to continuously use a fixed IP address
- P2P Proxy network is a little danger to use
A DNS (Domain name system) proxy also known as the dynamic name system proxy, is a very dynamic proxy and can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Due to its dynamic and flexible nature, and several useful features, it is one of the most popular names on this list of proxies used today. The most prominent feature is that of DNS Proxy Cache where the DNS proxy resolves or passes on a request from the user and then the said request is stored in its cache data.
A web proxy, though not a common proxy name, but has significant importance in the internet and website world is that proxy which acts as a shield between you & the website you're visiting. It comes under the category of anonymous proxies as it allows you to keep your identity anonymous to the website you're visiting. Whenever your network involves a web proxy, it's the web proxy connecting on your behalf instead of you connecting directly with the website.
Web proxy is commonly used by everyone around the world to hide their identity or their searches online.
The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Proxy is a proxy that appears to a user in the form of web page instead of an invisible entity. Users can use this web page to connect to different websites or access different links. This added technical camouflage allows the user to access these websites anonymously. It works by means of an encrypted web form present on a web page.
Remember to be careful when you use these proxy sites or others. They are mostly free but every time a 100 per cent guarantee cannot be sustained. So always check all the variables before proceeding.
I hope you like this 130 Best Free Proxy Servers List with Top Anonymous Proxies 2022. If you want share more proxies please do share in the comments below.
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