Most of us today are not aware of growing technology and things that make it worse. Be it online like cyber attack or anything else. To prevent seeing from anyone eye or just browse the internet by not getting caught is an easy option and seems a realistic option today.
If you don’t know what these “VPN” & “Proxy” terms meant in the internet field. then, obviously, you are missing things you should know. The primary purpose of a VPN and Proxy is to establish a connection between a host computer followed by a remote computer through hiding host computers’ IP to prevent intruders from eavesdropping.
How does a Proxy server work?
When a person uses a proxy server it sends the request to the internet (upon establishing a connection to the website) or intercepted by the proxy it does the following things.
- It checks back for the local cache to find if there is required content you requested stored in it. If it finds then it will fetch the content without sending the request to the internet.
- The proxy will send the request over the web if it does not find any in the local cache. Once it receives the content it will be followed to your device.
The only difference between a VPN & proxy is a Proxy server will be said to establish an untraceable connection or make your network ID completely hidden from surveillance by hiding your IP address. It boasts several features such as having a firewall or network data filtering, network connection sharing and data caching. A proxy server will come to use when certain countries want to disable access to the internet for the citizens.
How does a VPN work?
A VPN is working as a bridge between the device you are using and your ISP (Internet service provider). When you run a VPN client to get connected with a VPN server and the internet traffic gets redirected by replacing your IP address with the server IP address to surf the internet anonymously.
The idea is pretty clear with VPNs. Assuming that an organization has 2 networks, Network1 and Network 2 that are physically separated by each other. And we need to bridge between two networks using a VPN service. In such a case, installing 2 firewalls, Firewall 1 and Firewall 2 is required to encrypt & decrypt the content send across the two networks.
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Let’s now understand how a VPN help secures the traffic moving between two hosts on the two different networks.
To understand better, Host X in Network 1 sends the data packets to Host Y in Network 2. And the transmission would work as follow.
- Host X create packets and include its own IP address as the source address and mark Host Y as the destination address.
- The packets are allowed to reach Firewall 1 and Firewall 2 whilst adding a new header to the packet. Before the transit of the data, it changes the destination of the IP address of the packet from the host Y to the IP address of Firewall 2. In the midst of transferring data, it authenticates solid encryption before the data moves to the source destination by modifying the data over the internet.
- The packet reaches the Firewall 2 over the internet through the router. Firewall 2 now drops the headers and decrypt the content sent over the internet and obtains the data constructed from the Host X shown in Step 1.
VPN & proxy might look similar to each other but they are different, a VPN has many benefits over the proxy such as accessing information from the internet by using a tunnel over the internet between computers or host.
It occurs by creating a tunnel by encapsulation of the data packets received and encrypting the protocols using additional layers of security such as SSL, TLS, PPTP, IPsec to encrypt the forwarded data.
This might help the companies to route the data and minimize expenditure of the leased lines to transfer the data more securely.
What are the major differences between VPN & proxy services?
There are many similarities between VPN and proxy services and among them, both of them are working pretty good in hiding your IP or online identity but the primary difference between the two is a VPN will encrypt all your data. But to elaborate a little the services offered by both in the following sections below.
Online security
1. VPN
VPNs are strongest providing a high level of internet security using some of the most powerful encryption methods to protect online data and traffic that passes through it. most cybercriminals use AES-256 standard encryption (military bit encryption) to hide their online presence. VPNs are uses protocols such as SoftEther and OpenVPN.
2. Proxy
Proxies don’t require any type of encryption do not hide your personal identity over the web. They might use SSL connection which is somewhat secure but is not very reliable. The only way proxies can abstain accessing the malicious sites so that you don’t accidentally get connected with them. the chances are that if you get to a malicious site through proxies they may end up on the proxy server without any notice.
No proxy server can hide your IP like a VPN server does but the main difference is that the owner of the proxy server always gets to see your IP whereas a VPN completely eliminates the client VPN server traffic from end to end. Even though a premium VPN server were to see your real IP address they can’t as logs will be destroyed in no time.
Internet Privacy
- VPN
VPN is said to offer a better level of security to hide your online privacy since all data send & received are encapsulated there’s no chance of eavesdropping on the web, not even your ISP.
- Proxy
With proxies, you don’t enjoy much of online privacy since not all the internet traffic is encrypted. This means your ISP can keep an eye of your internet sessions and see what you’re doing online. Even if you access the web using the HTTP on a proxy server it still retains the tracking packets caused by your online activities.
Online Speeds
- Proxy server
Proxy servers do not do any good on your internet speeds. Since they use a good encryption method to access the web and load pages faster but only when the cached page is stored locally. If it’s found the cached file locally the proxy server does not have to make a separate request to obtain the file from the web. However, proxy servers are said to have overcrowded and there’s a chance of ending up with slower speeds.
- VPN
A VPN will slow down the internet speed due to its high level of encryption. Also, the distance between the VPN client-server is also believed to contribute slowness. Well, it might not be guaranteed to face slowness even if it’s not that noticeable. Choosing a VPN provider having multiple VPN protocols tends to offer greater speed such as SoftEther. Another advantage of using a VPN would be to eliminate bandwidth throttling.
Extra Features
- Proxy server
Unlike VPNs, proxy servers do not offer features such as the KillSwitch, an Apps. Killer or DNS leak protection. These features are marked with an additional layer of security for your online privacy. Although you can get them but do impact the overall user experience too.
Pricing
- Proxy servers
Proxy servers are made available for free especially most public proxies. However, proxies are often caused by downtimes and can go offline anytime. What’s more, about 79% of proxies don’t make use of HTTPS which put a venerable threat to your data exposed online. Even some proxies might push ads using the JavaScript.
- VPNs
As of now, all VPNs services are not free. Whilst better VPN services offer the use of secure network connection is often paid services. Unlike, free VPNs and free proxies’ services. VPN is better options for reliability, support, and security.
VPN Vs. Proxy- Which one you choose?
Ensuring everything said above in the post, it seems that a VPN is what you need for a great online experience. VPN would serve as an intermediately to route your online data securely so that no one can eavesdrop on your internet sessions. On the other hand, if you just want to get rid of geo block or hide your IP address without getting worried about internet privacy then consider using a proxy server.
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Our Verdict on the difference between a VPN and Proxy services
A VPN will offer you a superior level of security when compared using proxies. The only difference between a VPN and proxy server is VPNs are much more suitable in maintaining high protection, security, and anonymity.
You will only tend to use a proxy when you want to perform simple tasks such as visiting blocked websites or getting around a geo-restriction. Ensure complete security before sending any private data over proxy servers. There are paid proxies too but it’s good paying for VPN services that offer additional security instead of a proxy server.
Overall, a VPN will offer more or less similar benefits over proxy but only adds up additional layer security, anonymity, and protection to the end user. For those who are absolutely concerned about their online presence should look for paid VPN services.
