Proxy Servers

[Longbow1]

Is there really any reason for a person to use a proxy now days with vpn's being all over the place.

 

Thanks

 

Eric

[WereCatf]

3 minutes ago, Longbow1 said:

Is there really any reason for a person to use a proxy now days with vpn's being all over the place.

Proxies and VPNs are not the same thing, they do not serve the same purpose.

[Oshino Shinobu]

While there is some cross over, proxy servers and VPNs do not perform the same functions. 

 

If you're just coming from the perspective of wanting to route traffic through a different server to bypass region locks, then yeah, there's not really any reason to use a proxy over a VPN for most consumers. 

 

For business use and corporate networks, proxy servers have a very important and valid use and VPNs are more often used for site to site connections rather than a user connecting directly from their client.

[myselfolli]

I fully agree with both the replies above mine - but they failed to mention the real use of proxy servers vs. vpns:

 

VPNs only aim to reroute your requests to a different machine while simultaneously encrypting your traffic from your machine to the VPN server. This is especially useful while using unsecured Wifi. Or for example for emloyees working from home, that need access to the company network (since - like the name suggests - a VPN creates a virtual network). VPNs are also commonly used to bypass region locks on sites like Netflix.

 

Proxy servers serve some of the same functionalities, but with one key difference: They're on the same network as you are right from the start. The traffic requests sent by client machines are routed through the proxy server and then evaluated there. The main benefits are of course privacy and a convenient way for the IT Admins to check the traffic and enforce limitations, but proxy servers also provide some additional benefits, like caching mechanisms for (for example) commonly visited websites.

 

Tldr; for a private user, proxy servers barely ever provide any significant benefits, in a corporate setting howevere, they are still exceptionally useful

[beersykins]

Most websites you visit traverse a proxy, as ‘reverse proxies’ are quite common in hosting.

 

 Your implied use of VPN sounds like you’re just describing proxying traffic but they have different functions than that.