Anonymous Proxy in Ubuntu Linux with Unblock World

What is proxy?

According to Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com), proxy came from Middle English proxi. There are few meanings about it,

• the agency, function, or office of a deputy who acts as a substitute for another.

• authority, power to act for another

• a person authorized to work for another

In computer term, there is no exact description what is proxy. To make it easy to understand, I may say proxy is as an application that acts as a substitute for another applications. At the first time, proxy was designed to create cache files every time we surf on the internet because at the beginning, internet access was not as fast as what we have now. So, if we use cache files, next time we visit the same website, computer doesn’t have to download all the contents again because it’s already saved in the cache files which it will increase the downloading speed.

Now internet connection is getting faster, faster and faster. We still need cache program but not as much as before. Proxy still do its job but it has an additional job, firewall. With proxy, Network Administrator can block Ports, Internet Link and even set bandwidth quota.

We can set Proxy in one computer.

We can set Proxy as a Proxy server for few computers.

Now we understand, if we use proxy mean our Application actually is not connected directly to the internet. For example, if I want to access www.google.com using my Firefox. Firefox then ask Proxy program to download google content. Proxy then save the content as cache file and pass to Firefox at the same time. Next time, I access google again, Proxy will read google cache files first before it download from the internet.

What is Anonymous Proxy?

Before I answer that question, we have to know first what is Anonymous.

According to Webster Dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com), anonymous came from Late Latin anonymuse. There are few meanings about it,

• not name or identified

• of unknown authorship or origin

• lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability.

I may say Anonymous Proxy is a proxy which is not identified, recognized and unknown where it comes from (the origin ip).

When do we need Anonymous Proxy?

When we don’t want our IP address to be recognized when we surf on the internet. Surfing on the internet is very danger especially if you don’t have enough security protection.

How can I have Anonymous Proxy?

The easiest way is using Anonymous Proxy online. There are a lots of online web based anonymous proxy service available on the internet. But I choose, ‘Unblock World’ because it’s easy to use, the menu is very simple and I like the web layout, simplicity but elegant.

How to use it?

Step 1. Just open your web browser and type: http://www.unblockworld.com/index.pl.

This is the basic thing. If you can’t access this website because it’s blocked by your administrator then you can’t continue to the next step.

Step 2. Type the internet address that you want to access.

I can’t access http://planet.ubuntu-id.org/ from my office.May be there are some ports that has been blocked.

So, I will use this address for our practice.

Just type http://planet.ubuntu-id.org/ on the ‘text box‘ then click ‘Submit‘ button.

Wait for few seconds, done. I can access it from my office.

How does it work?

Actually it has the same explanation with Proxy Server that I have mentioned before. Only now, my proxy server is not in my LAN but I move to www.unblockworld.com. When I type http://planet.ubuntu-id.org in my browser, it will tell Unblock World to download the content from http://planet.ubuntu-id.org. Unblock World then put the content as part of its website. So, now I read the http://planet.ubuntu-id.org content from Unblock World as if as I access it directly to http://planet.ubuntu-id.org.

The same method can be implemented to access any blocked website by your administrator or even your government.