There are 3 types of HTTP proxies:
- Fully anonymous proxies – Such proxies do not change request fields and look like real browser. Your real IP is also hidden of course. People that administer internet servers will think that you are not using any proxies.
- Anonymous proxies – Do not show a real IP but change the request fields, so it is very easy to detect that a proxy is being used by log analysis. You are still anonymous, but some server administrators restrict proxy requests.
- Transparent proxies (not anonymous, simply HTTP) – Change the request fields and they transfer the real IP. Such proxies are not applicable for security and privacy while surfing on the web. You can use them only for network speed improvement.
SOCKS is a protocol that relays TCP sessions at a firewall host to allow application users transparent access across the firewall. Because the protocol is independent of application protocols, it can be (and has been) used for many different services, such as telnet, ftp, finger, whois, gopher, WWW, etc. Access control can be applied at the beginning of each TCP session; thereafter the server simply relays the data between the client and the application server, incurring minimum processing overhead. Since SOCKS never has to know anything about the application protocol, it should also be easy for it to accommodate applications which use encryption to protect their traffic from nosy snoopers. No information about the client is sent to the server – thus there is no need to test the anonymity level of the SOCKS proxies.
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