by Richard R Fortuna

Proxy sites have been around for quite a while, but it’s only recently that their use has come into vogue with the mainstream Internet crowd. College students in particular have found a lot of uses for those sites with the wireless Internet access in their respective schools. But proxy sites are good for more than just collegiate shenanigans.

Liberating the Internet

Although Internet access is now common in most schools, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to browse all your favorite sites. Almost every school that offers wireless Internet access also enforces one kind of website blocking or another, such that sites like Facebook and MySpace are inaccessible. It might not sound like a big thing when you’re reading about it, but it’s a really big hassle when you spend a big chunk of each school day without access to your favorite sites.

Proxy sites are the quickest way to regain access to those important sites and ” yes ” social networks. Their non-blacklisted URLs let you surf under the radar of the server, so you’ll be able to access those banned sites, social networks and more risqu domains ” even when the administrators tell you otherwise.

At the same time, the school servers also won’t be able to track the sites that you visit. All they’ll see is a record of your visiting the URL of the proxy site, but no more than that. It’s a handy solution if you don’t want the school administrators nosing about your Internet activity.

Keeping it Quiet

Avoiding awkward questions from teachers and bosses about your browsing activity is just one part of the deal. Many websites nowadays want to take note of your IP address and track your movements so that they can feed you better advertisements. If you’re the average Internet user, this is something you’ll want to avoid, especially with all the viruses and malware going around nowadays.

On top of that, third parties trying to keep tabs on your movements on the Internet will find it extremely difficult to follow you. That’s because they’ll end up seeing the IP address and details of the proxy that you used instead of your own. If you use different proxy sites for every browsing session, you could confuse trackers even more by taking on various IP addresses that point to places all over the world.

This comes especially handy if you want to visit sites that nobody else should know about. Do you want to keep those nightly visits to certain sites a secret from your roommate or parents? Proxy sites can make it happen; even if they snoop around on your computer, all they’ll see is the URL of the site you used.

If you’re like most Internet users today, you want your online browsing to be ‘me’ time, something only you know about and enjoy. A lot of people nowadays, though, want to encroach on your privacy and track all sorts of things about your Internet habits. Proxy sites give you a quick and no-cost solution to reclaim the Internet and make your online browsing a personal pastime again.

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