Hello everyone!

I have been using proxys to navigate the web for a long time. I find them on web sites with proxy lists. Are they safe? I mean do they save your passwords when logging in or track your browsing behavior, visited sites etc.? Most sites have policys against this, but I don't know anything about the proxies I use, so.... I can't think of any other reason why they would exist.
Another question: How can I connect to IRC via proxy. if I use a normal proxy I get a message like : "Open proxy found on your host ,please check.. ". I don't want to do anything bad on IRC , just think I should be able to conseal my identity.
Thanks.

Jhon.

If you want absolute privacy use a high anonymity proxy, meaning that sites you visit will not know you are using a proxy ... proxy IP = your IP (unless they have ways around it through say Java or Javascript ... there are certain workarounds using these ... so for absolute privacy keep them off most of the time). As for IRC and P2P ... you can imagine that if other people are using the same proxy as you ... there are going to be problems identifying who is who ... after all if you are using a high anonymity proxy the sites you visit will not even know that you are using a proxy ... they willl think that the proxy IP is your IP. That's where the conflicts arise

Note: The use of proxies is for privacy purposes ... although they can be used as bases of internet attacks. All authorities have to do to find you, if you did anything bad, is get the server logs off the proxy server ... most will give them willingly to the FBI, CIA ... they don't want trouble.

Yes, proxies are quite safe to use ... the server logs get deleted every once in a while ... I mean if no offenses are reported during a particular month that originate from behind a certain proxy the logs will in general be deleted. Passwords are, in general, not stored on the proxy server.

Here is a good site with lots of info on proxies:
http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/aliv...oxy/proxy-list/

Use the http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/aliv...-proxy-checker/ to get more info on a particular proxy. Make sure you check the response time ... pings higher than 400 will lag your connection quite a bit.

(I hope there is nothing wrong with me posting this ... proxies are legal right ? ... last time I checked they were .. it's just illegal to hack from them )

Thanks H_TeXMeX_H.

Yes, I'm using proxys for privacy only. I'm using Hell Labs proxy checker to check them.
But, who creates and hosts them? After all, they theoretically don't get any money from this and proxys use up lots of bandwidth.
The general idea is that proxys are created by ISPs, to save bandwidth. The proxys I am using are not from my ISP, so it doesn't help the host in any way.

Bye,
Jhon

Generally universities, large businesses and corporations, public institutions (libraries), and government institutions host proxies for personal and public use. In theory you may need permission from the host to use their proxies, but with so many people on them ... a few more won't really matter.

Here is another good site:
http://www.searchlores.org/fiatlu/proxy.html

Important point:
DO NOT USE Anonymizer.com, Anon.Free.anonymizer.com, they are NOT secure proxies, read the Richard Smith's article posted on alt.comp.virus.

Yeah, I guess some proxies are not secure ... but if you have a good proxy checker, yours should do ok, it will generally tell you if they are secure or not. You can also google the proxy and probably get some more info ... say if someone investigated a certain proxy and found it insecure ... it should come up in google.

You can use sites similar to this one to see if sites can read your true IP: http://www.proxydetect.com/

Tank you for the info and links. One more question. I know what is javascript and how insecure it can be.
Here another site about proxys and java script: http://www.secwatch.org/anonymity.php.
But what is java? Does it mean java applets?

Bye,
Jhon.

Yes java is java applets ... if java is off ... java applets won't run, so in general you don't need java support on unless you are visiting sites that use applets. Uhhhh ... I guess my answer is kinda biased towards firefox ... you can turn java off in firefox, I don't quite remember if you can do that in IE or not, it's been ages since I've used IE.
Actually here is how to turn it off in IE:
Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Uncheck Use Java <applet> and JIT (if it causes problems)
from: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~tomw/mvmjit.html

Maybe I'm overestimating the security threat that applets pose to anonymity ... but I've seen java able to read my real IP behind a proxy ... so I don't trust it ... maybe I'm just paranoid ? Check this thread from post #4 down ... other threats to anonymity: http://www.click-now.net/forums/index.php?...5935&#entry5935

Thanks for the site ... more info than the one I gave

You are right about java and javascript. Look what I found:
http://www.freeproxy.ru/en/free_proxy/faq/anti_proxy.htm
I'm also using firefox . I don't have java installed so applets won't run anyway.

Bye,
Jhon

Hehe ... neat site ... well there you go, now you know how stay as anonymous as possible (99.99 % anonymous) ... I would not say anything is 100% anonymous. Well ... good luck