why do people use proxy sites?

[Rudyard]

Had it explained to me that on a relo's work network people were using a proxy site to bypass restrictions e.g. hotmail, facebook etc that were blocked.

Apparantly you go to a proxy site, which then surfs under a different ip address and yours is hidden.

But what I dont get is, if IT staff block sites why wouldnt they also block proxy sites and thus this would make it useless?

Also if my IP address is available, then I connect to the proxy site and the proxy's IP address is shown on the sites I tell it to visit and then it sends the sites to me, wouldnt that still make my IP address available since there is a connection via my computer to the proxy site? Wouldnt that in itself mean that it is not annonomus as a lot of the quick google searches I did suggested?

I have no real knowledge of what advantages surfing through a proxy has and why people use it along with how it works.

Should I be using it for security or is it simple a way for people to access sites they are blocked from?

[Supreme2k]

is it simple a way for people to access sites they are blocked from?

Pretty much.

[Midzuki]

Besides, when the DNS servers of your ISP are down, free proxies are a useful workaround.




+++++

[TJohns]

...if IT staff block sites why wouldnt they also block proxy sites...

As a school IT administrator, I can say (in my case at least) that's exactly what we do do. But do a Google search for proxy sites & see how many you'd need to specify! And as fast as I block them (our internal internet proxy, which everyone HAS to go through to get outside tracks EVERY access, so I can tell when a new proxy starts getting a lot of traffic) new ones come online.

Some fancier internal proxy systems actually "decode" every packet that passes thru them, and analyse the data to "categorise" the traffic to find proxy access and put real-time block in as they're found!

It's a constant battle to keep everything "safe" for the kids - and don't we hear about it when a parent complains that "my son/daughter said that XYZ was on the school computers".

Trevor

[hech54]

I use a proxy in order to watch BBC Top Gear clips on the Top Gear site. For some idiotic reason....if you are not in the UK....you cannot view the bonus clips that were not shown in the original shows(or any clips for that matter).
Same with some YouTube channels(record company channels like EMI)...viewers inside America cannot view some of the videos on that channel....and the artist is an American artist.
DUMB!!!

[greymalkin]

yep any good IT person over that sort of thing would be actively blocking the proxy sites.

I'm assuming the reason people go to them is that their internet "log" or whatever inside the company only shows them going to a single site, when they actually went through that site to all sorts of other sites that would have otherwise been blocked. Even though they probably can't then "prove" that you went to XYZ site, you still look just as guilty for going to a proxy avoidance site!