GLOSSARY
HTTP proxy
An HTTP proxy is a proxy that understands web requests. For plain websites it reads the request and forwards it. For HTTPS websites, the browser asks it to open a blind tunnel using a command called CONNECT, and the encrypted traffic passes through without the proxy being able to read it.
Why it matters
HTTP proxies are the easiest kind to use, since browsers, scraping libraries and command line tools support them. A proxy that handles plain HTTP can read and change that traffic, and it may add headers such as Via or X-Forwarded-For that reveal its presence, or even your original address. That is how anonymity levels are defined.
In practice
Set up is usually a host, a port and optionally a username and password. Some types authenticate by your own IP address instead. To see what a given proxy discloses, send a request through it and look at the headers the destination receives. The proxy checker does this and rates the result as transparent, anonymous or elite.
Related terms
- Proxy: A proxy server is an intermediary that makes requests on your behalf.
- SOCKS5: SOCKS5 is a proxy protocol, specified in RFC 1928, that relays network connections at a lower level than HTTP.
- User agent: A user agent is the line of text a browser or app sends with every web request to say what it is: its name and version, the rendering engine, and the operating system and device type.
- Port: A port is a number from 0 to 65535 that tells a computer which program should receive incoming network data.