So how can you help protect your privacy online - do I need to use a private proxy? Well actually that depends, there are a few reasons why you should stick to a private proxy to help you decide.

(1) Free proxies - surprise, surprise nothing is ever free, someone always has to pay. The majority of time, a free proxy has been either opened by accident or hacked but the owner will be paying the bandwidth bill until he realises.

(2) Web Proxies - some of these are ok. They will mostly be supported by advertising, so you’ll get a few popups or have to surf in a frame but for occasional use they server a purpose.

(3) Private Proxies are fast - you get what you pay for. If the proxy you are using is very slow (like all the free ones) then you’ll get fed up of using it I remember well surfing on a 28.8k modem and it’s not an experience I wish to repeat.

(4) Hacked Proxies - lots of the free ones are actively run to steal data. Freebie proxy user tunnels all his data through the free proxy where it is logged and filtered for passwords, accounts or identity information.

If you’re looking to surf anonymously, looking to keep your identity secure you have to use a service with a private network of proxy servers. Anything that points you at free servers is a huge security risk, you’d be much safer browsing normally than using a free anonymous proxy if you don’t know who runs it believe me.

I have been surfing anonymously now for a while, the greatest compliment I can give to the software and the private network proxies I use - is that I see no difference in my surfing speed. WHen you consider my connection is also encrypted and compressed that’s definitely worth paying for, not having my entire web history stored at my ISP makes me feel good as well!

If you were ever wondering how people accessed myspace and other social networking websites at school and work when all you received was the schools error page then they were probably using a proxy site.

Proxy sites help to bypass filters created by network administrators at your school or work place, these are in place to stop students or employees from accessing websites which are not supposed to be accessed mainly due to the irrelevancy that they have with your job or education.

There are different types of proxy servers which can be created some which use the server its self to put a server request through without contacting the specified server.

Other proxy sites use the World Wide Web this being the most common type of proxy site the “web proxy” these are used as a web cache providing access to blacklisted websites.

Proxy sites also help to allow banned IP addresses that may have been blacklisted from certain websites filtered access back in to that website.

You can create your own proxy site very easily with basic knowledge of HTML and CSS as well as a slight knowledge of PHP. If you’re unsure how to create a proxy site you can learn by reading my own free proxy eBook which you can download here free proxy eBook. Proxy sites offer you access to every website that may of before been blocked, your able to surf and chat also giving you the choice to surf youtube and watching videos. Proxy sites are often slower than entering the website from the normal route due to the bypassing they have to do however they are generally fast enough.