How do Proxies work

I keep seeing a lot of proxies here, and I wondered how they work. This is for educational purposes only.

2 Likes

They work because students feel a need to use them; they use them. When used, the proxy gets a bit more recognized. With soo many schools using proxies, they get insanely popular even though they’re bad.

Edit: oh, I guess you mean code stuff. AFAIK they rebuild the website. (Try checking source code on a proxy like Ultraviolet (or don’t) you can see it’s a bit different, it’s got new script files linked and essentially it’s not the same site URL anymore.).

7 Likes

Summary

In this very lengthy explanation, I will cover the definitions of a proxy, the features of one, and the causation of the sudden increase in proxies on Replit.
What is a proxy TL;DR (for lazy people)

Welp, here we go.

Q: What is a proxy?

A proxy is a service (such as Ultraviolet or Interstellar) which forwards website data from the server to the client through the service, or also known as the proxy server. The main reasons why people use proxies are to either Access restricted resources (e.g. blocked websites or region-specific content) or to Conceal their IP address or any potentially trackable data.

Q: Why are there so many proxies on Replit?

To answer the first part of your question…

This is an example of cause and effect. The massive increase in the number of users utilizing proxies is a result of the increase in the need for a proxy, probably due to the fact that their school or institution has started blocking certain websites, using tools such as Lightspeed Filter Agent and Securly.

Q: How does a proxy work?

Now to answer the second part of your question…
A very basic proxy will include code that sends a request to the website of interest (e.g. google.com) and more code which takes the website data and then forwards it to the client. Such an example would be titaniumnetwork-dev/PHP-Proxy, which is an example of such a proxy.

Q: What “advanced” features do most proxies offer?

However, many websites have scripts and/or anti-proxy measures which can cause the browser to open up a new tab with the raw [and potentially blocked] URL outside of the proxy. This is where service workers come into play. Service workers are scripts in your browser that can control and moderate the website’s network activity, essentially acting as an intermediate proxy for the proxy server. These intermediate proxies can prevent websites from redirecting you to the raw URL outside of the proxy, and can also limit the amount of suspicion that a website has that you are using a proxy.

Finally, a fully published and production-ready proxy service (such as titaniumnetwork-dev/Ultraviolet and interstellarnetwork/interstellar would have a homepage which allows users to select which website that they would like to visit, and a settings option to configure additional features. For example, Interstellar has Tab Cloaking, and Games, while Ultraviolet offers a Customizable UI and advanced URL Encoding. Certain people even created a specification for proxies!

TL;DR

In a nutshell, proxies are services that can be used to access restricted resources or conceal your IP address. A basic proxy involves sending a request to the website of interest and forwarding the website data to the client. However, some websites have anti-proxy measures that can cause the browser to open a new tab with the raw URL outside of the proxy. This is where service workers come into play, acting as an intermediate proxy to control and moderate the website’s network activity. A fully published and production-ready proxy service would have a homepage that allows users to select which website they would like to visit and additional features such as customizable UI and advanced URL encoding. Proxies have become so popular that there are even specifications created for them.

I hope that you have found this information useful, and that you will have something to take away from this rather long explanation.

Edit: Could somebody make this a wiki?

9 Likes

this is still too long for me smh

5 Likes

Read the whole thing in 2 minutes. I’m a speed reader.

5 Likes

@OmegaOrbitals Then how do you understand anything from it?

Edit: idk but that sounded rude. I was just curious about if you absorb any information lol.

5 Likes