CGI Proxy is a free script that is on many web pages and is a HTTP or FTP proxy. What this means is that through CGI Proxy, you can access any website that the server running it can. For example, some organizations may block the URL "http://www.hotornot.com" with their firewall, but by using CGI Proxy you can get around this blockage.

As well as providing a method to access blocked web pages, CGI Proxy can also provide some degree of anonymity. Although it is not fail proof, it can stop the website you are viewing from knowing more about you.

When an HTML resource is retrieved, it's modified so that all links in it point back through the same proxy, including images, form submissions, and everything else. Once you're using the proxy, you can browse normally and (almost) forget it's there.

The CGI Proxy script is provided free at jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/, but if you just want to use it, there are many sites that let you.

Finding a site that allows you access to this script, is quite simple. As the filename of the script is normally nph-proxy.pl or nph-proxy.cgi, we can use Google to look for sites with pages matching this filename:

• Search for nph-proxy on Google
• or nph-proxy.pl on Google
• or nph-proxy.cgi on Google

Another way of finding sites that allows you access to this script, is to search for the phrase "start using cgiproxy"

• Search for Start using CGIproxy on Google
• or Start using CGIproxy in the page title on Google
• or "Start using CGIproxy" on Google

You will find that the first page might be no long active, blocked or require a subscription. Just go to the next page of results and you will soon find a page offering use of CGI Proxy or that links to another page offering access to CGI Proxy.

A proxy server is a computer network service which allows clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests a connection, file, or other resource available on a different server. The proxy provides the resource, possibly by connecting to the specified server, or by serving it from a cache. In some cases, the proxy may alter the client's request or the server's response for various purposes.

A common proxy application is a caching Web proxy. This provides a nearby cache of Web pages and files available on remote Web servers, allowing local network clients to access them more quickly or reliably.

When it receives a request for a Web resource (specified by a URL), a caching proxy looks for the resulting URL in its local cache. If found, it returns the document immediately. Otherwise it fetches it from the remote server, saves a copy in the cache and returns it to the requester. The cache will usually have an expiry algorithm which flushes documents according to their age, size, and access history. Two very simple algorithms include LRU and LFU. LRU will remove the least-recently-used documents, and LFU that removes the least-frequently-used documents.

Web proxies can also filter the content of Web pages served. Some censorware applications -- which attempt to block offensive Web content -- are implemented as Web proxies. Network operators can also deploy proxies to intercept computer viruses and other hostile content served from remote Web pages.

Proxies can also operate at a lower level on the protocol stack. Network address translation, or NAT, is a method for proxying TCP connections and UDP datagram exchanges. NAT is also known as IP masquerading.

Many organizations — including corporations, schools, and families — use proxy servers to enforce network use policies (see censorware) or provide security and caching services. A normal Web proxy, or other application proxy, is not transparent to the client application: the client must be configured to use it, manually or with a configuration script. Thus, it can be evaded by simply resetting the client configuration. A transparent proxy or transproxy combines a proxy server with NAT so that connections are routed into the proxy without client-side configuration.

Both NAT and transproxies are somewhat controversial in the Internet technical community, since both violate the end-to-end principle upon which TCP/IP was designed.

The term proxy is also used in a different sense in SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol used in many modern voice over IP systems. A SIP Proxy, unlike a Web proxy, does not handle the content of client data.

Open proxies, abuse, and detection

Both Web and other network proxies have been abused by spammers and other network abusers. An open proxy is a proxy server which will accept client connections from any IP address and make connections to any Internet resource. Abuse of open proxies is currently implicated in a significant portion of email spam delivery. Spammers frequently install open proxies on unwitting end users' Microsoft Windows computers by means of computer viruses designed for this purpose. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) abusers also frequently use open proxies to cloak their identities.

Because proxies are implicated in abuse, system administrators have developed a number of ways to refuse service to open proxies. IRC networks such as the Blitzed network automatically test client systems for known types of open proxy. Likewise, a mail server may be configured to automatically test mail senders for open proxies, using software such as Michael Tokarev's proxycheck.

Groups of IRC and electronic mail operators run DNSBLs publishing lists of the IP addresses of known open proxies, such as Blitzed OPM and CBL .

The ethics of automatically testing clients for open proxies are controversial. Some experts, such as Vernon Schryver, consider such testing to be equivalent to an attacker portscanning the client host.  Others consider the client to have solicited the scan by connecting to a server whose terms of service include testing.

It is all in the name; PHProxy is a proxy that is programmed in PHP. PHProxy is a web-based circumventor that can be easily installed on any PHP-enabled webserver in order to allow users to browse through the webserver itself as a proxy. PHProxy retrieves websites requested by the users and modifies their code so that all links in the requested websites point back through the PHProxy. In this way, users can browse through the PHProxy in order to bypass Internet censorship.

PHProxy is highly configurable:

• Multiple methods of URL obfuscation to bypass keyword filtering
• Control over media mode (including text only) to save bandwidth
• Script and cookie removal for enhanced anonymity
• Access Control (whitelist & blocklist)
• Alter Image sizes to combat HTTPS finger printing

The PHProxy script is provided free at Sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/poxy/), but if you just want to use it, there are many sites that let you.

Finding a site that allows you access to this script, is quite simple. We can use Google to look for sites with pages contain the name of this script:

• Search for PHProxy on Google

You might have to try a few sites before you find one that is working.

CGI Proxy is a free script that is on many web pages and is a HTTP or FTP proxy. What this means is that through CGI Proxy, you can access any website that the server running it can. For example, some organizations may block the URL "http://www.hotornot.com" with their firewall, but by using CGI Proxy you can get around this blockage.

As well as providing a method to access blocked web pages, CGI Proxy can also provide some degree of anonymity. Although it is not fail proof, it can stop the website you are viewing from knowing more about you.

When an HTML resource is retrieved, it's modified so that all links in it point back through the same proxy, including images, form submissions, and everything else. Once you're using the proxy, you can browse normally and (almost) forget it's there.

The CGI Proxy script is provided free at jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/, but if you just want to use it, there are many sites that let you.

Finding a site that allows you access to this script, is quite simple. As the filename of the script is normally nph-proxy.pl or nph-proxy.cgi, we can use Google to look for sites with pages matching this filename:

• Search for nph-proxy on Google
• or nph-proxy.cgi on Google
• or nph-proxy.cgi on Google

Another way of finding sites that allows you access to this script, is to search for the phrase "start using cgiproxy"

• Search for Start using CGIproxy on Google
• or Start using CGIproxy in the page title on Google
• or "Start using CGIproxy" on Google

You will find that the first page might be no long active, blocked or require a subscription. Just go to the next page of results and you will soon find a page offering use of CGI Proxy or that links to another page offering access to CGI Proxy.

It is common for people to worry about their privacy. The companies around us like to compile as much data on us as they can and this is too much for some people. What advertising company really needs to know that you have just spent 1 hour on-line looking at digital cameras?

This is where anonymous surfing comes in. It allows you to browse websites privately and anonymously. There are 2 different types of privacy:

• Appearing anonymous to a website you are browsing

• Appearing anonymous to people who can watch your internet connection

Why surf anonymously?

People do not surf anonymously just to stop advertising companies from finding out information about them. They can also use anonymity as a way to keep their private life away from their employers, the government or annoying family members.

An interesting case from anonymity is when there is a chance of political persecution. In Iran, anonymous surfing is used to avoid being executed in street executions.

How anonymous surfing works

Anonymous surfing works by utilising a proxy server between the website and the user. This means the web browser communicates through the proxy server to the website.

The website only knows the details about the proxy server and does not know any details about your connection with the proxy server. As the proxy server knows about your connection, it is wise to select a proxy server you willing to trust.

There are 3 ways that a proxy server can be used to surf anonymously:

Anonymously surfing with a website service
Website services providing anonymity allow you to enter any URL of a page you wish to surf and it retrieves the web page for you.
Client applications providing anonymity
Some software can be downloaded that will manage the details of your anonymous surfing.
Anonymous proxy services
You can point your browser at these services and they will provide anonymity for all your web surfing.

Anonymous proxy requirements and features

The first thing a good proxy server will do is create a SSL or TLS connection to you. With this, it is harder for a third party to observe what you are doing on the internet and monitor your usage.

While browsing the net you can use a few protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS and FTP. Make sure that your proxy supports all the required protocols that you use.

As you are using an anonymous proxy to protect your anonymity, you do not want anyone to be recording where you are going. Make sure that the proxy you are using does not keep logs and does not record any of your details.

A proxy server is a server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

• Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page 1. Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides, which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster operation. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.
• Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.