Accessing the internet to browse and retrieve necessary content is typically done as needed. However, being online for extended periods has become essential, increasing the risk of hackers potentially stealing data.
When you visit a webpage, your IP address is the first thing it captures. Unfortunately, hackers can also use this information to gain unauthorized access. To protect your privacy, a proxy server can be used as it masks the real IP address and sends a proxy IP to the target site.
Proxy servers are used in educational institutions and corporate offices as spy devices so that everything browsed through their Wi-Fi network can be tracked. Depending on the proxy server configuration, keystrokes may or may not be logged.
As every log is recorded on a proxy server, online examinations are mostly conducted using proxy servers so that candidates browsing online for answers can be tracked and filtered.
Proxy servers store the cache data on the server so that when a request to the same web page arrives more than once, the load time is reduced. Proxy servers can be configured to restrict specific URLs and webpages accordingly.
The actual working of the proxy server
Scene 1 : Without a Proxy server
When a URL is searched it goes directly to the targeted web page, here our public IP address is being recorded. Here, Privacy is not achieved.
Scene 2: With Proxy server
Step 1: A web page is requested and Public IP is captured by Proxy Server
Step 2: Using Proxy IP, proxy server accesses the data on the web page
Step 3: Proxy server sends the captured data back to our Public IP
Here, Proxy server acts as a bridge between our public IP & website IP, and do not reveal our Public IP.