Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Security and Technology : How does this site work?

[cckid]

Hi guys, I'm interested in learning something, and hope that you guys can point me in the right direction!
Take this site, for example: secure-tunnel.com
How does it do all those things? For example, IP masking and traffic encryption. How does that work? Are they just a proxy that charge you for useage, or what?? What kind of technology is involved? How can I do the same for myself for free if I already have a webhost?
Curiosity is killing me and google is confusing me!
Thanks for your help!!

cckid

[slack]

You're correct, it's an anonymous proxy service. You can't do anything of this sort with just an account with a web host.

If you just want to hide your IP when browsing, there are plenty of free anonymous proxy servers out there, and plugins for browsers like Firefox that will allow you to switch between them easily.

[Matt -Seeksadmin]

Hi cckid,

A bit of a more detailed explanation. In the http instance, a proxy works like the follow:
1) User requests the url from the proxy server
2) The proxy server visits the website that the client requested
3) The proxy then changes the website if there is explicit settings
4) It then shows it back to the client

So thus your computer never actually visits the website you requested, the server actually visits it. You can prove this by going to any free anonymouse proxy and going to: www.whatismyip.com . It will be the server that the proxy website is on.

However, these http proxies are not 100% fool proof, some java scripts and alike can still get your real IP address, but you can find out how by searching google.

As slack said, there are plenty available around the web, and id be checking with your web host before you try running one as most do not allow it. Search for phproxy or cgi-proxy if your host allows you to run one.