Which proxy to choose — Socks5 or HTTP?

Proxy server. How does it work?

Proxy server is an intermediary when working on the network. It allows you to communicate with a target website indirectly through a point that can potentially be from anywhere in the world. That is, you will be undisclosed to a website or some other resource connecting through a proxy server.

As you might already guess, the main goal is to hide your actual IP address on the Internet. When using a proxy, all your traffic passes from your device to one or more proxy servers, they, in turn, communicate with the final destination as if the request is coming directly from you, receive a response and forward it to you without changes.

All this allows you to use a proxy for a wide range of tasks: circumvention, penetration tests, SEO promotion and other tasks that require a certain level of anonymity on the network.

Types of proxy servers

When you made sure you need a proxy, you also need to choose its type.

Proxies can have many properties: type of hardware, location, level of privacy, available TCP ports, but here we will consider the most important characteristic that is usually meant when talking about the type of proxy, that is data transfer protocol.

There are quite a lot of types of data transfer protocols that can be used by a proxy server, but the most popular and widely used are HTTP(s) and socks protocols. As a result people call them HTTP and socks proxies.

HTTP(S) proxy

The most common type of proxy, designed primarily for visiting web sites, downloading and transferring files. As the name suggests proxies work under HTTP, which allows you to quickly and efficiently work with web pages, for example, on a browser, using the following features:

• web-data caching to increase the speed of work through a proxy
• logging
• ability to configure access restrictions to some resources
• filtering of transmitted data
• set restrictions of connection speed

In addition, there are three types of HTTP proxy, which differ in the level of anonymity: transparent, anonymous and elite.

Transparent proxies provide a minimum level of anonymity, as they transmit information about the proxy and the real IP address of the user in HTTP headers. This type of proxy cannot be used on most duties that require a higher level of anonymity. Usually this type can be found only in conjunction with other types of proxy servers.

Anonymous proxies offer an average level of anonymity. Their difference from transparent proxies is that they hide the real IP address of the user from the destination server. This gives a much higher level of anonymity, but information about the use of proxies still remains open, which somewhat limits the scope of use of this type.

Elite proxies provide the user with the highest level of anonymity, hiding from the final destination the real IP address and the fact of using a proxy You can use such proxies for the entire list of tasks, including those requiring a high level of anonymity.

The table below will help you better understand the differences between the types of HTTP proxies.

What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS

HTTPS proxies are actually a modification of the HTTP proxies already discussed above. The letter ' s ' at the end means "secure". Such proxies support data encryption in order to increase the security of your data on the Internet. This is achieved using cryptographic protocols SSL and TLS.

Most often, a secure connection is used to ensure the security of banking and corporate networks, conduct banking operations, protect passwords for access to various Internet resources.

Encryption of transmitted data also increases the level of anonymity on the network. Because when you use an HTTP proxy without encryption, all your activities on the network can be intercepted and logged by your ISP, which may lead to unwilling consequences. In addition, information transmitted over an unencrypted channel can be intercepted on the proxy server side itself or in any other ways.

When using HTTP proxy, there is no possibility to control the content of the transmitted information through a proxy server. At the same time, the proxy server itself is not engaged in decryption of data, that is, it is only capable of transferring information, which also increases the level of security and anonymity.

Socks5 proxy

The most versatile protocol when it comes to proxy servers, and also the most popular one is Socks5. These proxies do not transmit any HTTP headers, which makes them anonymous by default, hiding the real IP address of the client and the fact of using a proxy.

Initially, Socks protocol was developed to transmit data not only through the web but the Internet in general. Because such proxies can transmit any kinds of data unmodified web servers cannot detect them, therefore you stay anonymous.

SOCKS4 proxies supported only TCP, and with SOCKS5, UDP, IPv6 and domain name resolving support was added. Socks proxy also supports common network protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and all their features: caching, SSL connection and others.

Being connected one to another socks proxies can also be arranged in long proxy-chains.

Socks proxies usually take TCP port 1080.

And yet — SOCKS5 or HTTP?

Trying to grasp all features of different types of proxy, a beginner may have difficulty in choosing the right one for his purposes. In the table below, we have summarized the main features to make it easy to compare them.

Summarizing all this socks proxy turns to be more versatile tool for a wide range of tasks on the network. Therefore, if you still have any doubts about choosing type of proxy, you can opt for SOCKS5 without hesitation, relying on its popularity among users around the world. Now it's your turn to rate the finest quality of this service.