The Biggest Dangers and Risk of Using Low-Quality, Free Proxy Solutions

You can find free proxy services everywhere. They are used by millions of people every day for many reasons. Some of the reasons these sites are used include accessing sites not available in a certain country and making it past censorship filters.

Unfortunately, what seems like a great deal may come at an unexpected cost and put your security at risk. According to one study, just 21% of free proxy sites offer HTTPS traffic. HTTPS is what is used to encrypt your sensitive information, such as personal information, credit card numbers, and passwords. If you use free proxies for surfing the internet, you are an easy target for hackers looking to steal data. Some other reasons to avoid using these free proxy sites can be found here.

They Are Malware Central

Not all free proxy sites are free from malicious malware. Since the service is free, the proxy site depends on people to use it to remain in business. As a result, they utilize advertisements along with content to get you to click certain sites. The bad news is that malware may be present behind those sites. You may not know it is there until your computer is already infected.

Free Proxy Sites Will Steal Cookies

Did you know that some free proxy sites are designed to steal cookies? The person or entity operating the proxy may gain access to your cookies when you use it. While this may not seem like a big deal, if the proxy sites steal your cookies, they may also steal your personal information. After they have your login information, they can get into your private accounts and cause many issues and damage.

Free Proxies Offer Subpar Services

Since free proxy sites don’t have much financial backing, the service provided is low-quality. The sites are often overused, and they are subject to lower levels of connectivity. You won’t find 24-hour support, and there is little help when it is needed. There are individual proxies that could be blocked or fail to work at all. You will find there are much better, low-cost, and safer options out there that you should consider using.

There Are Better Alternatives Available

When it comes to proxy services, there is no reason you should settle for low-quality options. In fact, there are more than a few quality service providers out there. Being informed and knowing where to look for these services is essential.

If you want to use a quality proxy that will not put your sensitive information at risk, be sure to do your research. You can also reach out to the professionals to learn more about the services available and why they may be the best available options. Keep in mind that not all proxies are created equal. This means it is up to you to do your research and find the top service providers available. This is going to help ensure you get the quality services and solutions you want and expect.

Three Most Common Types of Proxies and Their Uses

Chances are you’ve probably used a proxy server at some point, even if you didn’t know it. Proxy servers are quite common, acting as intermediaries between internet users and the sites they visit. These servers provide varying levels of security and performance based on the provider and the server itself. They can be used to restrict access, control bandwidth, beef up security, and even prevent crashes.

Believe it or not, proxy servers are not just for businesses. While they are more common in corporate America, proxies are often utilized for personal use as well. Familiarizing yourself with the three most common types of proxies and their uses is the best way to protect your personal information and get more bang for your buck. Here’s what you need to know.

Free Proxies

Free proxies are commonly used by kids to get around parental controls. They get to visit restricted sites without record and parents are none the wiser. There are several problems with free proxies, though. Many of them do not allow HTTPS, meaning the information exchanged is not encrypted and you are easily monitored. Furthermore, the connection is often slow, and the risk of encountering malware is high. Free proxy servers can also steal your cookies giving them access to all the sensitive information necessary to steal your identity or impersonate you online.

Transparent Proxies

Transparent proxies are often encountered at libraries, schools, and even some businesses. They are also called intercepting proxies because they ‘intercept’ connection traffic without allowing request modifications. Transparent proxies are often used to filter content and restrict access to certain sites. For instance, a school may use this type of proxy to restrict access to websites with mature or obscene content. They are also considered the easiest to implement.

SOCKs5 Proxies

This is the latest proxy with an enhanced security protocol. It supports multiple authentication methods and relays traffic through Secure Shell (SSH) encryption. SOCKs5 proxies do not require special set up or the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN), although they can be used together. Data packets are exchanged without being rewritten, thereby reducing errors and increasing performance. These attributes make SOCKs5 proxies a favorite among corporate administrators. They are ideal for secure browsing, transferring files, email, and cloud-based services.  

While proxies are not foolproof, choosing the right one can enhance your internet experience by leaps and bounds while securing the exchange of information. Understanding proxy uses and limitations helps ensure you choose the best option for your purpose without overpaying. At EZ Proxies, we customize each order to ensure security and anonymity with round the clock customer support. When you are ready for a secure worry-free internet experience, contact EZ Proxies for fast courteous service.

Reasons not to Use Free Proxy Sites

Free proxy services are used every day all over the world by internet users for a variety of reasons. Some of these include the ability to access sites that aren’t available in their home countries and sneak past censorship filters. These free proxy sites come at an unexpected cost, however, the security of the users.  According to a recent study done by an internet security researcher, only twenty-one percent of free proxy sites provided HTTPS traffic. HTTPS is used to encrypt sensitive information, like passwords, credit cards, and personal information. When you surf the internet via free proxy sites, you’re essentially a sitting duck for hackers to steal your data. These are some additional reasons not to use free proxy sites. 

A Hotbed of Malware

The proxy site might not be free of malicious malware. Because the service is free, proxy websites depend on you using their site to stay in business. They will intersperse advertisements in-between content to get you to click on those sites. Unfortunately, malware might be lurking behind those sites. Unfortunately, you may not know until it’s too late that your computer is infected. 

Proxy Sites Can Steal cookies

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Who me? Couldn’t be, then who? The cookie monster? No, something much more sinister. The proxy sites stole the cookies. Whoever is operating the proxy site can have access to your cookies. Accessing your cookies may not mean anything to you other than that; these sites can again steal your personal information. Once they steal your login information, they can log in to your accounts and do a lot of damage. 

The Offer Poor Service

Because the free proxy sites run with little financial backing, the service itself is subpar. The sites themselves are overused and subject to low connectivity. There is no twenty-four-hour support and inadequate access to help when or if needed. Individual proxies in other countries may be blocked or not working at all. There are much better alternatives to losing your information on identity theft and other black-market dealings. 

There is a Better Alternative

While free proxy sites might be enticing, it’s much better to know what you are getting. Why take a chance and lose sensitive information? EZ Proxies are here to help and can offer consumer support. Shared proxies, as well as individual proxies, are available in many locations in the United States and worldwide. Please choose EZ Proxies for all your online privacy needs.  

3 Massive Benefits of Proxy Servers

Why use proxies?

This is a service that a lot of people just aren’t very familiar with. But when you look into why people are using proxies, you see some very distinct benefits.

Here are some of the reasons that so many people are signing up for subscriptions to use our proxy servers as a gateway between them and the World Wide Web.

Your Sentinel: Firewall Operations

In a very basic sense, a proxy is a firewall between yourself and the open web. Information coming in has to be vetted through this gateway. Without it, you’re just getting the free flow of information, without this type of perimeter security.

Most of us have heard of the Trojan horse, which was an early mechanism for hackers to bring malware into a private network. But the Trojan horse doesn’t really work if you have a gateway that’s designed to act as an effective firewall. That’s one of the prime reasons that proxies are so useful in modern networking.

Cloaking and Your Privacy

VPNs are popular in business, because of the second word in their name – virtual private network tunnels make sure that encrypted information doesn’t get into the hands of the wrong people.

It’s the same way with proxies. The privacy benefits are significant. Whether you’re using hotspots, or just paranoid about your own local system’s exposure, you can shield your activity through a proxy gateway and get peace of mind.

Bandwidth and Efficiency

This is one of the benefits of proxies that you don’t hear as much about.

How do proxy servers increase bandwidth and efficiency?

They do this with a process called caching that is rather like what web browsers do for end users.

The idea works like this – by keeping common requests in a cache, the system can deliver iterations to different demands, without recalling the source material every single time. That frees up bandwidth, and it increases the speed of responses, so that the system gets a kind of turbocharge in terms of its performance.

For example, if you are on a proxy requesting a specific landing page, let’s say for kitchen supplies, you might be one of 100 people who are coming online that day and requesting the exact same page. Instead of doing all the work every single time, the cache system can have a cached result that it sends to you in a portion of the time, with a portion of the energy conventionally needed to do a discrete delivery.

This is just the beginning of what proxies can do for web users. Look into your own network and infrastructure and how IP addresses are handled to understand more about how our services work.

4 Things Parents Need to Make Distance Learning Easy and Safe

There are over 50 million school-age children in the United States. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the way these children learn has changed significantly. While a number of schools are planning to reopen, many parents are hesitant to send their children back to the classroom. If you are planning on using distance learning for your child in the coming months, you need to adequately prepare.

Having the right tools and technology in place is vital when trying to have success with distance learning. The following are some things parents need to make distance learning easy and safe.

1. Private Proxies Are a Great Investment

During your child’s distance learning experience, they will have to do a lot of online research. Making sure your child isn’t tracked by online advertisers or foreign governments is important. One of the best ways to protect your child’s digital identity is with the help of private proxies.

These private proxies are designed to mask your IP address. This means you will no longer have to worry about your child getting held back by geographical barriers or ad networks. The investment you make in these private proxies will be worth it considering the increased online security they provide.

2. Getting the Right Laptop

If your child is taking advantage of distance learning during the school year, they will need a reliable and fast laptop. Luckily, there are tons of different affordable laptop options on the market. Before you choose a computer for your child to use, be sure to consider things like the amount of storage and the online reviews it has. Ideally, you want to choose a laptop that has tons of storage space.

3. Your Child Will Need Good Headphones

Keeping children focused and motivated is one of the main hurdles parents will face when taking advantage of distance learning. Providing your child with a quiet area to study and do their online assignments is imperative. Making sure your child can hear online lectures and classroom interactions is vital, which is why investing in a pair of high-quality headphones is a wise move. If at all possible, you need to select headphones that offer noise-cancelling.

4. Protect Your Electronics with a Surge Protector

Most parents will spend lots of money getting their children the electronic equipment they need to take advantage of distance learning. Plugging a computer straight into a wall plug can result in it getting fried if a power surge happens. This is why investing in a surge protector is so important. The protection these surge protectors offer makes them well worth the money. Finding a surge protector with USB ports built into it is a great option if your child has tablets and phones they need to charge.

Protect Your Online Identity

If you want to invest in a private proxy, contact the team at EZ Proxies. Our goal is to provide consumers with private proxies at a reasonable price.

What You Need to Know About Private Proxies

Proxies serve several significant purposes, whether you want to go through SEO rankings in bulk, as a social media marketer, an online business owner, or a torrent user. And since proxies allow users to perform several tasks that are otherwise impossible, they are becoming quite popular these days. When you use proxies, you can bypass some restrictions like those on censorship and the geographical ones. Nevertheless, it may be quite challenging to choose one exactly for your needs with the plethora of private proxies providers available on the web.

If you want a great value, 24/7 support, and highly anonymous for your money, choose EzProxies as you will have the chance to use the company’s servers as an intermediary. It will be highly impossible for a website to tell you are using a proxy because Ezproxies utilizes its advanced technology.

What is a Private Proxy?

The type of proxy server that one person can exclusively use at a time is a private proxy. As it makes it untraceable, this proxy server will hide your IP address. Thus, your IP address will become masked if you are using a private proxy. Your local ISP will mask your IP address.

How the Private Proxy Works

You will figure out that you’re the only one using the proxy through authentication. A private proxy provider that will provide you with the authentication system as part of their services for their private proxies is essential before you buy a private proxy. Two ways of private proxy authentication include:

Whitelist IP Authentication

Whitelist IP authentication is an essential part of IP authentication. There is an IP address assigned to you when you purchase a proxy from a private proxy provider. You can use this IP for authentication as you have authorized access to proxies through this process.

Password and Username Authentication

Username and password is another method of authentication. As most internet users use this method, it is quite common. And because all that is required is to provide your login details, which are username and password, the process is quite easy.

Compared to the username and password method, the proxy is indeed the simplest, even though you can’t call it less secured. There are benefits and challenges with this method. You can only have access to the proxy from the Whitelist IP alone since you will have to use your private proxy provider to whitelist your IP address.

Types of Private Proxies

Private proxies are the type of proxy server that one person uses at a time. There are several types of private proxies, and you will have mobile IP proxies, private residential IP proxies, and private dedicated IP proxies. Because of their lesser chances of being tracked, these proxies are the best to use. It is quite essential to determine the type that you will apply according to your needs before you buy a private proxy.

Online Privacy: 3 Benefits of Hiding Your IP Address

For most people, using the Internet is something they do to stay connected with the world around them. Whether you are shopping online or using a social media platform, keeping your sensitive information safe is vital. Over 80% of online consumers are concerned about the information social media websites collect. This information is generally sold to a third-party who is trying to advertise products or services. 

There are a number of ways you can protect your online anonymity. One of the most used and effective methods of staying anonymous online is hiding your IP address. This can be accomplished with the help of a VPN or a private proxy. Hiding your IP address is beneficial and here are some reasons why. 

1. Avoid Online Geographical Barriers

Do you travel abroad on a regular basis? If you answered yes, you are probably familiar with the geographic online restrictions on websites like Netflix. In certain parts of the world, Netflix will restrict the content they offer due to copyright laws. This means that even if you are from America, you will have a hard time logging on and enjoying streaming media. If you are tired of getting blocked due to online geographical bans, you need to think about hiding your IP address. 

The IP address you use to access sites like Netflix provides companies with information about where you are located. However, when you use a VPN or private proxy, this information is not so readily available. Many companies that offer these IP masking tools will have servers based all over the world. This means you will be able to choose what location is shown to these websites. 

2. Keep Ad Networks at Bay

Every time you sign up for online services with companies like Facebook or Google, you are inadvertently giving them permission to track your browsing history. By looking at your browsing history, companies like this are able to present you with relevant ads. If you are tired of having your information used for these purposes, it is time to hide your IP address. 

By masking your IP address, you will make it nearly impossible for companies to track your browsing history. With the help of professionals, you should have no problem hiding your information and surfing the Internet in peace. 

3. Protection From Government Surveillance

In many foreign countries, governments monitor the online activity of their citizens very closely. This invasion of privacy is something you can avoid if you are traveling to a country that has these practices in place. With a private proxy or a VPN, you can keep information regarding where you are and what you are looking at online private. Taking the time to research all of the options you have to mask your IP address is the only way to make the right choice. 

Looking For Private Proxies?

If you are in the market for private proxies, contact the team at EZ Proxies to find out how we can help.

Use a proxy with PHP and CURL

Here is a simple script to use a proxy in PHP with CURL.

This is an example if you are using IP authentication with the proxies:

If you are using the proxies with username/password authentication use the following code:

The Functions Of A Proxy Server

A private proxy server is basically a combination of single or multiple software and hardware that are designed in a way to provide certain networking facilities to customers. It could also be considered to be a software or hardware which provides services or some system which runs a server operating system.

Therefore a private proxy server could also be referred as to firewall mechanism which is present as a substitute of IP Address, for a protected host network, which has a temporary addresses for all kind of the information that is passing through. Decision are made by it whether to authenticate a certain client or user IP Address, to permit the network access and to establish connections on behalf of users, with some remote computer.

It is basically a computer which acts as an intermediary or interface in order to make connections between 2 or more computers, having varying protocols & that are present at different remote location over web.

When a user (computer) attempts to connect to another user to look for any resources such as files, web pages, connections, etc available on their database, it is the proxy server that evaluates if such connection is permitted according to the existing settings on the remote computer. When the private proxy server authenticates that these conditions are met, it then makes the request on behalf of the user and establishes the connection.

Proxy servers can respond to client or user, can also make modification of their requests, or respond to client’s request without making any contact with server. This is done by usage of the cached similar responses that are present at the remote server which are being requested from resources.
The other functions include:

1. Time is reduced to access certain resources.
2. For evaluation or auditing process, a log is served in order to give data on web.
3. Parental control or security gets over ride by it.
4. Regionally restricted resources are also accessible.
5. Due to security or anonymous browsing, clients are retained under cover.
6. Unauthorized site or unwanted stuff is blocked.
7. It also scans and filters the malware before making the delivery of requested resources.
8. It blocks some outgoing data, by serving as a scan. It is done for protected files.

Though, it acts as an intermediary, who basically do acts on behalf of more than 2 clients or users, proxy server may also be placed between clients, or at the destination servers that are present on web, in order to serve its functions.

Why should one buy a private proxy?

When one browses over the internet, they usually come across a great number of internet issues, some of these internet issues includes the installation of malicious software, which are commonly known as malwares. The question often arises what is malware? Malware can usually be said to be a computer virus. Malware includes every kind of virus in which includes Trojans, spywares, worms, root kits etc.

When one browses over the internet they may come across all such different types of malicious software, and normally a computer’s firewall is not able to stop all such malware. However if you want to protect yourself from such virus or other kind of intruding software that might risk your personal security, than one should go with buying a private proxy. A private proxy allows you to browse safely over the internet; as such proxy hides your IP address from different websites and servers that you visit which allows you to be absolutely safe from such viruses and intruding software.

When you plan to buy a private proxy for yourself or for your home then you would definitely have a great number of options to choose from, as most of the proxy selling websites allow you to select different kinds of package plan for your proxy. So you can select the one that’s fits you best and fulfills all your needs and requirements.

Most of the people try to go with free proxy sites, as they find it much more convenient for themselves to use such proxy rather than buying their own personal private proxy. However going with the website that allows you to use free proxy is really not a good idea, as such sites monitors all your moves and have a close on you. If these websites are operated by hackers than they will surely add some kind of spyware or adware into your PC which may trouble you in terms of future perspectives and is definitely not good when it comes to your personal security.

The other thing that these site might do that they might start sending you a bulk of spam mails, as they would save your user id, which they usually sell to product advertisement companies. Mark my words there is no such thing as “Free”, if someone is providing you with such “free” service than they will surely make money from you in some way or the other way. So it’s a good idea to buy a private proxy rather going with such free services.