What’s the difference of a browser extension VPN and a downloaded one? Will they give the same protection in my browser? Will the extension VPNs affect outside of the browser?
ITT: people confusing definitions of proxy and VPN, and assuming a browser extension MUST be a proxy.
A proxy changes your IP but doesn’t encrypt your traffic. A VPN does both. Each may have additional functions, such as ad-blocking or malware-site-blocking.
Both types could be installed either as a browser extension or into the network stack that handles traffic from all applications and services. A browser extension affects only traffic to/from that browser.
Probably typically a proxy will be a browser extension and a VPN will be in the general network stack, but not always.
yeah. downloaded one gives more options about the setting. It provides more servers, locations choices as well
a browser extension just acts as a proxy for your www’ing… it wil lnot protect stuff down outside that specific browser… including other browsers, and torrents
A browser VPN will not protect you outside of the browser, so its generally not a good idea to use them. A dedicated VPN is always better.
Thanks for the excellent description
What about when you run a socks5 proxy using ssh? It’s encrypted traffic but still considered a proxy yes?
I’m no expert, but I think SOCKS has authentication but not encryption. When you do it over SSH, the encryption is coming from SSH (TLS). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOCKS