While there are a number of similarities between proxy servers and VPN services offered online, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the two. Here, both proxy and VPN services help you re-route your Internet traffic and change your IP address. Still, there are certain changes which help you understand how proxies and VPN function differently.
What is Proxy?
A proxy server also known as application-level gateway or proxy is a server (a computer or an application) that works as an intermediary between a local network and a large-scale network like the Internet. Here, the local network could be anything from computers at one place or in one building that requests resources from other servers. The proxy works as by intercepting connections between sender and receiver. During the process, a client or local server requests for a resource from a different server or connects to the proxy server requesting specific service like connection, web page, file, or other resources.
Source: telehouse
Proxy server working as an application-level gateway evaluates the request as a way to simplify and control its complexity. During the process, all incoming data enters via one port and later forwarded to rest network through another port. Once proxy servers block the direct access between two networks, it becomes really hard for cybercriminals to get sensitive information like internal addresses etc. of a private network.
Proxies were invented to add structure and encapsulation to distributed systems. Further, some proxies work as a group of servers or applications that block common internet services like SMTP proxy intercepts emails and HTTP proxy intercepts web access. Today, most proxies are found as web proxies where they help facilitate access to content on the Internet and offering anonymity. It could also be used for bypassing IP address blocking.
Types of Proxy Servers
Open Proxy: Being a forwarding proxy server, an open proxy can be accessible by any Internet user. On Internet there are hundreds of thousands of open proxies that can be used easily. These anonymous proxies can be used by users to conceal their IP address while surfing and browsing the Internet. Here, there could be a varying degree of anonymity and different methods where proxy could be revealed.
Reverse Proxy: A reverse proxy masquerade itself as an ordinary server where it forward requests to one or more ordinary servers that will further handle the request. Here, response will be returned as if it has come from original server directly. Thus, it will leave the client with no knowledge of which was the origin server. As reverse proxies are installed in neighborhood web servers all the traffic coming through internet route through the proxy server. There could be various reasons why installing reverse proxy is useful. It includes encryption/SSL acceleration, load balancing, server/cache static content, content compression, extranet publishing, security and more.
What is VPN?
A VPN or Virtual Private Network offers an additional layer of security & privacy to your Internet experience. Once you enable VPN on your system all your Internet traffic will route through an encrypted remote server. VPN functions at the network level thus it offers lot of additional features beyond your web browser experience. It offers a strong encryption for all your online activities for better security. It works automatically to secure your network thus you need not do anything once you establish a connection.
Source: mostsecurevpn
Here, VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between host server and guest computer. Once you establish the connection all the Internet traffic will be routed via the secured host server. Thus, nobody else will be able to see that you are connected to VPN except government authorities and your ISP. VPN services offer anonymity, speed, ability to choose geographic location, security and more.
Conclusion: Though there is not much difference between Proxy servers and VPN still there few we can mention. Here, VPNs work at the most basic level or at operating system level while proxy server could be used for a single application (for example your web browser) as well. Further, VPN offers strong encryption services while proxy is bit lenient. In addition to that, VPN offers more secure connection to keep your activities safe in comparison to proxy servers.