When surfing the internet you may be blocked by a security firewall. This security firewall will stop you from surfing the websites that you wish. Websites that are often blocked include video websites such as Youtube and game websites such as Miniclip. To bypass the filter you must use a proxy. A proxy will download the website itself and then just display it on your computer. If the proxy itself isn’t blocked for you, then this can be a great alternative to surfing anonymously and being able to go through filters. Schools and work environments often have these security systems in place. Be careful using these proxies though because they have to be reliable, otherwise they can steal the usernames and passwords you put in while using the proxy. Stick to reputable proxies such as UnblockMyspace.com

In addition to bypassing security, proxies also allow you to hide your IP. Your IP address indicates your location and other private information – this is very useful to hackers, spammers, and other people who want to compromise your privacy. A proxy hides your IP and instead of displaying your IP address to other systems, the proxy server’s IP is displayed.

A proxy is also helpful to hide your location. Many websites block visitors from China and Russia. To combat, Chinese and Russian internet users instead use proxies. With a proxy, websites are tricked and think that your location is that of the proxy server’s location. A website such as Hulu only gives access to visitors from the United States. All other users must use a proxy to go to the website.

Even with many international visitors coming to proxies, the biggest user base is still students whose schools have security systems set up. These students are looking to unblock myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube, miniclip and other popular entertainment and social networking websites. Students should be careful since administrators can still see the websites you are surfing through the proxy. Still, the proxy allows you to bypass all security. The only problem is that the proxies themselves get blocked fairly quickly. The best solution is to get a paid proxy which will never be blocked. A paid proxy such as Proxy Key also gives you a Proxy IP that you can use instead of a server. You can put this IP Address into a browser such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer. Since it is not a web proxy, you are not going to any website and thus it cannot be blocked. This is a great solution for a proxy that is never blocked.

Proxies are great for unblocking websites and bypassing security, whether you are in a school in the United States or in a country that blocks websites such as China.