What is the difference between a VPN and a Proxy?
VPN and Proxy…does it all sound like ancient Greek to you? Chillglobal to the rescue! Here we will clear up the differences between VPN and Proxy.
We face various concerns today in this cyber world. Some are related to our privacy, while others are related to censorship policies and imposed geographic restrictions. Every day there seem to pop up a new enemy.
In the midst of all this chaos, the government's espionage also comes to persecute us. Both a VPN and Proxy can be used as weapons to fight against these enemies. But it can be difficult to distinguish between functions, benefits and differences between a VPN and a Proxy.
But not to worry, we have put together an easy step by step guide for you on how to distinguish the differences between a VPN and a proxy so that you can easily select the appropriate tool according to the nature of the problems encountered.
Before going further explaining the differences between VPN and Proxy, we must establish "what is a VPN" and "what is a Proxy"?
So here goes;
What is a Proxy?
A proxy forms a bridge between the user and the Internet with the help of a server. Any traffic routed through a proxy server will appear to come from your IP address, not from your computer. In fact, the bridge formed by the proxy server takes your request through the route and routes the traffic as requested.
As your IP has been hidden, the censorship restrictions imposed by your location will no longer affect you. Proxy servers do not use any type of encryption to secure all the traffic that passes through them, and can therefore accept simultaneous connections from many different sources. One could therefore be a scam or an identity thief. Proxy servers communicate with the Internet using one of 2 different protocols; HTTP or SOCKS.
What is a VPN?
A VPN is a much more sophisticated tool than a proxy. A VPN not only allows you to avoid geographic restrictions and deal with censorship concerns, but also promotes your security and anonymity. A VPN builds a secure tunnel using protocols classified by the army (PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, OpenVPN etc.) between your computer and your desired designation.
A VPN also uses high-level encryption to encrypt all the traffic that passes through its servers. In this way, only the designated website can decode the communication. The secure tunnel only allows encrypted traffic to pass through it.
VPN vs. Proxy
1. Online security
VPN: Provides high-level encryption of up to 256 bits. VPN is more like a safe vault, once you used it, all your communications are completely secure.
Proxy: Provides very low level security. Only in the SSL connection, everything is encrypted, but in the non-SSL connection everything is vulnerable to cyber threats.
2. Online privacy
VPN: All your data is totally encrypted and therefore nobody can interfere in your privacy, not even your ISP can control your activities.
Proxy: Anyone can intercept your private data.
3. Online freedom
VPN: You can access any website from anywhere in the world and thus able to watch geo-restricted TV from abroad.
Proxy: Only works for certain geographic restrictions and does not conquer strong firewalls or censorship.
4. Speed
VPN: The best solution to increase your Internet speed, such as SmartDNS. A VPN does not compromise your speed.
Proxy: compromises Internet speed to a high extent, due to overloaded servers.
5. Compatibility
VPN: Works with all operating systems and devices; such as Windows Linux, Mac and routers.
Proxy: Limited only to certain browsers.
6. Reliability
VPN: Is the most sophisticated tool to guarantee your security, privacy and freedom online at the same time. Therefore, 100% reliable. ChillGlobal is the most reliable VPN.
Proxy: Only works to bypass geo-restricted channels and does not provide any security. Hence, not reliable.
7. Stability
VPN: 99.9% stable and gives you the maximum uptime.
Proxy : Usually freezes. It gives you maximum downtime, even when you are in the middle of downloading or streaming.
Congratulations, you are now a pro in differences between VPN and Proxy!
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