Fake IP Address
When you connect to a web site, it can
see your IP address as the "Remote IP" or "Remote
Address". When you surf through a proxy server, these
fields contain the IP address of the proxy server
instead of your own IP address. So the web site will see
the address of the proxy instead of your actual address.
But all non-anonymous proxies usually put the IP
addresses of their clients (i.e. of the computers using
those proxies) in either of the two following request
headers (variables): "HTTP_CLIENT_IP" or "HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR_IP"
There are no strict standards, so one proxy may be
sending the IP with "Client_IP" variable and another
with "X_Forwarded_For_IP". There is not much difference
between them but they are never used together - either
one or the other.
So, if the proxy you are using is not anonymous, the
web site will be able to see you true IP address in one
of these fields.
Requests that are generated by anonymous servers do not
have these fields (that's what makes them anonymous).
The thing is that you can set A4Proxy to create these
fields, and put there "fake" IP addresses (they are
generated as random numbers, so they are different for
each request). As the result, the web site which you are
visiting will "think" that you are visiting it through a
non-anonymous proxy server (while in fact it is a truly
anonymous server with an additional fake field generated
by A4Proxy).
Not all web sites will look for these fields (Client_IP
or X_Forwarded_For_IP). However, those which do look for
them will definitely be confused as the fake IP address
will be different for each request.
It may be a good idea to switch on one of these options
(and it is not important which one).
Finally, if you want a particular address to be sent to
the web site in one of that field, you will need to
create a modification for that field on the Browser
Options tab, in addition to enabling the appropriate
Simulate... option. What is a Proxy Server?
A proxy server is a kind of buffer
between your computer and the Internet resources you are
accessing (e.g. Web sites or FTP archives). The data you
request come to the proxy first, and only then it
transmits the data to you.
What is the use of proxy servers?
Usually, proxy servers are used to
increase the effective speed of your connection to the
Internet, as they save files that are requested most
often in a special database called "cache". The cache of
a proxy server is generally huge in its capacity, and
contains not only the requests made by you, but also the
files that have been requested by hundreds, if not
thousands, of other Internet users. As a result, the
information you need may already be present in cache by
the time of your request, making it possible for the
proxy to deliver it immediately. The overall increase in
performance may be very high. Besides that, proxy
servers can help in cases when, for example, the owners
of the Internet resource impose some restrictions on
users from certain countries or geographic regions. What
is an anonymous proxy server?
Any web site in the world can track
your movements through its pages and monitor your
reading interests using your IP address, a unique ID
assigned to each computer on the Internet. Depending on
the policies of the Internet resource, you might not be
able to get access to the information you need. Also,
your visit can be registered and used later to gather
some personal information about you.
It is widely agreed that governments and organizations
publish dummy web sites on controversial topics for the
purpose of monitoring interested parties. Also, this
information, in combination with your e-mail address,
can be used to increase the number of targeted
advertisements fired at you by the marketers.
Using only your IP address and the information about
your operating system, a Web site can automatically
exploit security holes in your system using some
not-very-complex, ready-made, free hacking programs.
Some of such programs may just hang your machine, making
you reboot it, but other, more powerful ones, can get
access to the content of your hard drive or RAM. The
anonymous proxy prevents this by hiding your IP address
so that no one can access your computer via the network.
In most cases, however, proxies do inform the target
server about the address of the computer that made the
request, transmitting your IP-address in different
forms.
Anonymous (real anonymous!) proxy servers don't transfer
the information about the IP-address of the client, and
thus effectively hide the information about you and your
surfing interests. Besides that, some proxy servers can
also hide the very fact that you are surfing through a
proxy server! Anonymous proxies can be used for all
kinds of Web-services, such as Web-Mail (MSN Hot Mail,
Yahoo mail), web-chat rooms, FTP archives, etc. What
is a public proxy server?
It is a proxy server which is free and
open for everybody on the Internet. There is quite a
large number of public proxy servers in many countries
but most of them are not anonymous. |
