Do you like free proxy servers?

I am talking about those “free” proxy servers you enter either directly into your web browser configuration or use some automated software to do this automatically “in the background” for you.

I will tell you one thing. I am an IT guy and I am pretty sure I understand my stuff quite well. In my opinion, the “free proxy servers” are borderline scam! I am not talking about the web proxies – i.e. those websites where you enter your URL and click “visit”. Despite that, in my opinion, those are good for the casual use only, they are at least legitimate. Most of them at least.

But do you want to know what those “free” proxy servers are way too often? They are just misconfigured software running on someone’s servers. That someone unintentionally allowed unrestricted access to the proxy server he/she attempted to configure properly but failed at, because it’s not a simple task.

They initially don’t even know they have this problem until someone begins to really abuse the bandwidth resources they have allocated and that usually doesn’t take long – that’s why they stop working so soon. If you use such a proxy, you may be actually stealing their bandwidth! Bandwidth that someone has to pay for in cold cash.

But you know what? Don’t trust me! Just go and find who has the particular proxy IP address assigned and contact them. I bet they will be surprised if you tell them what’s going on.

Some of those “free” proxies work even as so-called “honeypots” operated by hackers. I don’t have exact numbers on this problem but when I was doing some Internet research earlier this year, it indeed lead me to the conclusion there may be quite a few. I don’t think the servers are rented by the hackers themselves. It doesn’t work that way. They are most likely just compromised computers/servers.

In my not-so-humble opinion, using “free” proxies is a pretty risky business no matter how you look at it. There are even many software applications that help you find working free proxy servers and then automate the process of switching your web browser to use one of them. Some of those applications even look relatively professional.

But let me ask you one simple question…

Do they know who owns the free proxy servers? Nope, THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHO OWNS THEM! Well, you get the picture.

Conclusion: If you really do need to use a free service, use web proxy servers (web based), TOR, or JAP. TOR and JAP are usually slow – *very* slow but should offer a relatively good level of anonymity. If using web proxy servers, try to use the established ones only.