Proxy sites
The demand for online proxy websites is increasing. This has various reasons:
Unblock proxies
A few years ago you could count the states censoring the internet on one hand.
These times the number increaes by this hand every year! Even respected countries like Germany or Australia are involved.
The call for proxies has never been so loud.SEO Proxies
The Search Engine Optimization is a powerful business.
Every webshop, ever web business is in need of a good ranking in Google, MSN or Yahoo.
Proxies are one key element to reach these goals and used by companies and individuals to promote websites.School proxies
Schools want their pupils to study, the pupils want to surf orkut, myspace or facebook.
The school install transparent proxies to filter unwanted sites, a natural enemy of these tools are web proxies to circumvent blocked sites.High anonymity proxy
High anonymity proxies are required by people from repressive states, by hackers and by black-hat SEO specialists to protect their identity.
There are only very few methods to guarantee anonymity, the common "high anonymous proxy" is not providing real anonymity.
Proxy websites
There are four main types of proxies that are hosted or listed on common proxy websites:
Web proxy sites
Web proxy sites contain so called "web proxies". These are the most basic type of proxies and are used for browsing anonymous.
A Web-proxy usually only contains an input form for the destination URL and a few checkboxes for various configuration options.
The big downside: They do not hide your IP. You can verify this fact here: proxy checker and read more about it on the web proxy advisory
They are only good to reach blocked sites.
proxy list sites
A proxy list is the common term for a long list of IPs and ports running SOCKS proxies or HTTP proxies.
These are rogue open proxy servers found on the internet, most times running against the knowledge of their owner and causing high bandwidth bills.
HTTP proxies are separated into normal proxies, anonymous proxies, high anonymous proxies and elite proxies.
These normal proxies transmit your real IP address as hidden variable, anonymous proxies only tell the website that you are using a proxy, high anonymous proxies do not tell the website this anymore.
Finally elite proxies hide all variables that could make a webserver think you are using a proxy.
The big downside: They are illegal to use, it is like taking money from the street and leaving your name and address on a card including the text "I took it".
Also their hostname usualy clearly shows every website owner that it is a proxy, running on hacked nameservers or webservers and not on DSL or cable like a normal internet user.
VPN providers and proxy providers
These are private and commercial proxies. They are the fastest proxies available, legal and stable.
A password and login is required to use such services.
The downside: The hostname is usually clearly telling "I am a proxy", they do not look like real users.
Also: The owners usually promise anonymity, they lie. They keep logs and if an authority asks for your identity then your anonymity is no more
high anonymity networks
Finally the first and only way to really be anonymous, at least you might think so.
The largest and free anonymity network is called Tor (The onion router) and it is indeed a high anonymity service. You are tunneled through chained special proxies.
There are also more service like this, even some commercial ones mainly targeting download requirements.
Downside of free networks: Heavy lag and unstable connections. They only look at anonymity, not at performance. That makes them hard to use for many people.
Downside of commercial networks: Most do not provide anonymity anymore, they are usually forced to log the data. A VPN service might be as secure and faster.
General problems: They are complicate to use and install. People need to learn and read a lot to really use those services.
Cloakfish
(the website you are reading right now) is also a commercial high anonymity provider, we supply professional tools and services and we are based on Tor.
We focus on
high anonymity,
high performance,
detailed control about the virtual identity as well as
easy use, setup and professional support.
Proxy sites:
Instead of listing a number of useless proxy websites, here is the information you need to find your proxies yourself:
Do you need a
web-proxy ? They are most easy to use, malfunction on many websites but are good to unblock sites censored by your school or employer.
In this case use google and search for these words:Glype, Zelune, PHProxy, CGIProxy and "web proxy site"
You will find a lot of them, but keep in mind: your IP is NOT protected. Use our free proxy checker to see this for yourself.
Do you need
free proxy lists ? These are illegal to use in the USA and EU (usually noone will sue you for using them, but remember you are not anonymous to the server owner!)
Proxy lists usually only have got a few percent working proxies, they are all abused heavily.
Instead of pointing you to a useless proxy list forum or site we suggest that you download the free tool "Charon", just google for that word.
Charon can find and test proxies, it is the tool you will love if you rely on such proxy lists. Take a look at the features of Cloakfish, we are cheap and provide you much more than any proxylist can do.
Private proxies or VPN providers are frequently available. As long as you do not engage in illegal activities they are good to use and provide a good speed/bandwidth
Many VPN providers are not professional, it is easy to sell something but it is hard to maintain quality.
Because of this we do not direct you to one of those providers, better create one yourself. It is easy to do and you can be sure no one looks at the data your send and receive.
Build your own encrypted SOCKS proxy through a VPS (VDS):
1. Buy a linux VDS :
GoDaddy.com Virtual Dedicated Hosting 
Godaddy are very large and professional, you will like them.
2. It will just take a moment and you have got your own linux server running including everything you need to hide your ip through it.
3. Download the free tool Putty, and configure it to provide a SSH dynamic port forward (in other words: a socks proxy)
Together with your VDS/VPS you receive an IP Address(your server), a login (root) and a password (of your choice), you can log into the server using these two values.
Start putty, go to the options: Connection / SSH / Tunnels and select: *dynamic, *destination=127.0.0.1, *port=5000
Now enter the ip, login and password of your new Server, save the settings as new profile and connect to the server.
The only thing left to do is to configure Firefox or IE to use the tunnel, read our Howto and configure a SOCKS proxy on port 5000
Anonymity networks provide free anonymity. This is the only way to really be anonymous, even from authorities.
I will only suggest one thing: Tor (torproject.org). Tor is free and the right choice if you are from a state like China, Iran or Burma.
You will have to learn a lot, Tor is made of one Client (Tor) and one Controller (Vidalia).
If you want more control, higher performance or don't want to learn how to configure and use Tor and Vidalia then check out our cheap licenses for Cloakfish.
You were looking for a proxy site and all you received was knowledge, we hope you still appreciate this.
The old wisdom: "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." (unknown Author) still applies.
