ELI5: What is the difference between a VPN and a proxy?
Both vpn and proxy are designed to add some level of security or protection for the user. But the way each goes about this is what differentiates the two. And with proxies there are a number of different sub categories to choose from. But to keep things simple, we’ll stick to the basics.
A vpn, or Virtual Private Network, routes your connection through an encrypted tunnel between your computer and a host server. Your internet provider or your countrys government can only see that you connected to the host server. But not your IP address, activists etc. are all masked behind a min of a 128bit encryption. It’s worth noting though that your VPN itself can still see your activity so it’s highly advised that you choose one that keeps no logs or records. otherwise, if there is a log somewhere kept of users activities, it can negate the whole point.
A proxy server, often called an open proxy, acts as a muddle man between your computer and the internet. Any traffic which is routed through a proxy appears to come from the proxys own ip address , rather than your own. Using this method, they don’t have to devote resources to encrypt your connection so proxy services can not only handle much more traffic ( 10s of thousands of connections) but tend to be faster than a vpn.
There are several ways that proxies use to connect to the internet which offer different ranges of access. But that’s getting beyond the question.
As far as privacy is concerned, most feel VPN is superior to a proxy hands down. Most who do the research and still choose a proxy usually do so because of cost. Proxies are usually very inexpensive and there are many that are free. Must vpn’s costs a bit more. But even that price isn’t huge and in many places you can get solid vpn service for $10 or less.
Lastly though, everyone should keep in mind that weather using a VPN or proxy or any of the other privacy methods available, that nothing is 100 % or completely anonymous. Records and trails can be scraped together from anywhere and unfortunately citizens rarely know the full story as to what their governments or hackers can or do have access to.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) sets up an encrypted connection between two computers. It allows two computers to communicate over a public network, without anyone else being able to read the contents of a connection.
A proxy is a server that performs requests on behalf of another computer. You send a request to the proxy, and the proxy then forwards that request onto the server. Then the server sends a reply back to the proxy, and the proxy sends it onto you. Proxies have a variety of uses - they are often used to cache content, providing faster access to frequently requested content. They can be used to implement a firewall, or they can be used to hide the original source of the request from the target computer. A proxy does not necessarily provide an encrypted connection.
A VPN can be set up to function as a proxy - in which case the goal is usually to make it difficult to trace the network traffic back to it’s source, by routing it all through the VPN. In this case the link from the source of the request to the VPN server is encrypted.
As many have said before, VPN is end to end encryption. Imagine you want to pass notes to your friend in class. You two develop your own “code” that only you two can understand so if the teacher catches it, she can’t read it.
Proxy is routing. In class, you tell Jamie to tell Billy to tell Adam to tell Carter to tell your friend a secret. Your teacher sees you talking to only Jamie, and since Jamie is a straight A student, she assumes that you two are on task. But let’s say the teacher wants to figure out what your saying. She would follow the line, and end up at Adam. Now Adam is a horrible student and every teacher hates him. Why would he tell your teacher who he told your secret to? In reality, proxies are like this. I connect to several places, it gets routed through North Korea or Russia, and ends up at the destination. The US government wants to know what I was saying. They can’t exactly waltz up to North Korea and demand he spills the beans.