We decided to use the first article in our announcement section to clarify the difference between public and private proxies. What are these proxies, the difference between them and how you can use them.
What are public proxies?
Public proxies are exactly what they say they are, proxies that can be used by the public. They are called public proxies because anybody having the IP and PORT details of the proxy can connect to it. And being public, it means that is free to use by anybody wants to use it.
However, even if public proxies are free and by searching on Google, one can find hundreds or even thousands of proxy lists, their use is not recommended for everybody.
Issues with public proxies
There are several issues with public proxies. But the most usual ones are lack of performance and security flaws. First, public proxies lack performance because they are used by several tens or even hundreds of users at the same time. And every bit of traffic takes a chunk of the proxy's bandwidth. Another performance issue is their terrible uptime. It is known the fact that public proxies can't stay online more than a few minutes to a few hours.
Second, the security flaws presented by public proxies are second to none. It is safe to say that the only certainty regarding public proxies is their lack of security and privacy.
Indeed, a proxy will offer a layer of privacy and divert a user's traffic. But anybody managing the proxy server can sniff the traffic passing through and retrieve otherwise secure information such as passwords and login details. Therefore, the real use of public proxies in applications and online privacy setups is very limited. But users can opt in for private proxies where both the performance issues and security flaws are mitigated by the business interests of proxy providers.
What are private proxies
At first glance, there is no real difference between a public and a private proxy. Both of them offer an IP and PORT through which the user diverts his traffic. However, the major difference between public and private proxies is the management and access to the proxy server.
If public proxies are free, open servers, allowing anybody to use and abuse the proxies' IP, private proxies are managed by a proxy provider. Being under the control of a proxy provider means that the provider is responsible for the access and traffic passing through the proxy. While private proxies can be used by paying a monthly fee, the advantages users drawn from using private proxies are the guarantee of privacy and use and uptime.
In comparison to public ones, private proxies offer full anonymity and privacy to their user. Moreover, based on the proxy type, the public proxies can be also split between shared and dedicated proxies.
What are shared proxies
Before we start to show the difference between shared and dedicated proxies, we have to mention that we only refer to HTTP proxies, which allow HTTP connections through them.
Shared proxies are private proxies used by several users at the same time. Usually, to maintain uptime and high performance during peak times, a shared proxy's usage is limited to three or four users. Depending on the users' needs, shared proxies are suited to most projects. However, for another type of projects, or for enhanced privacy, users can deploy dedicated proxies.
What are dedicated proxies
Dedicated proxies are similar to shared proxies, with one difference. They are used by only one user, thus the “dedicated” name. This means that the buyer of this proxy is the only one using it.
Dedicated proxies, sometimes refer simply as private proxies are usually bought when the user needs an extra layer of privacy or when the user needs to use the proxy for special uses.
How to connect to private proxies
As mentioned, to connect to a public proxy, one simply needs the IP and PORT of the proxy. And basically, anybody who gets in the possession of the IP and PORT can use the public proxy.
This is not the case for private proxies, where the access is limited by the proxy provider. Thus, even if somebody knows the private proxy's IP and PORT, can't establish a connection. Because upon trying to connect to the proxy, the server will prompt for an authentication method. And usually, a private proxy user can opt in between two type of authentication, depending on its needs. First, he can choose to authenticate to the proxy server through a username and password. And the second option is to choose an authentication based on IP, where the user submits his real IP to the proxy server. And the proxy server will only allow subsequent requests connecting from that IP (or DNS) only.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
