Proxies vs VPN Question

[FwdMoparJunkie]

I'm just wondering if I have this correct. These two terms seem like that they get thrown around a lot. In a very, very basic sense in *relation with an ISP*, a proxy has almost no encryption. Whereas a VPN has complete anonymity and encryption between you and the isp.

Essentially, a proxy will only mask your ip address from others (torrents) and allow you to access web content such as youtube if you lived in a country like North Korea that would block sites like that. Do I have this somewhat correct?

 

[Ra_V_en]

Partially yes.
There is 3 basic types of proxy considering anonymity: transparent, anonymous and elite. The difference is how http header is sent to the web sever. First (transparent) sends your ip in a specific header, second (anonymous) hides that header but is still shown to a web server as a proxy, meaning some services can find out it's not a user asking for a web page but a proxy and somehow act different, last one (elite) acts like a typical station, no proxy information is sent to the web server.
There is also different types of proxies considering functionality, most of them are just transparent http caching servers, many ISP providers use them too boost web browsing. There are also socks proxies that can give you option to work not only on http protocol but any other, meaning you can use it for torrents, etc.
https://tech.tiq.cc/2012/06/differences-between-transparent-anonymous-and-elite-proxy/

With VPN there is a different story.
You are using specific software or OS functionality to set a safe connection between two different locations/computers. The connection is being scrambled/encrypted thus the only one who nows what you are currently doing is the VPN provider. Even your ISP can only see that you are transferring data from/to VPN server but don't exactly know what data contains.


So as you can see with this anonymity of proxies it's not that obvious as you might think. Yes it's generally used to bypass some kind of localized limitations, to access content which normally is not available for your location, but thats not the only use.

 

[bill001g]

You will get no clear definition mostly because you have a lot of non technical marketing people that got involved and confused things.

If you look a proxy that you set in a web browser setting in most cases that is send unencrypted using normal HTTP protocols. So in those cases information about what is actually being sent can be determined. Now there are addons for many browser and some browser now natively support the use of HTTPS for proxy. So now you have encrypted proxy traffic just like a vpn. The only real difference being that traffic from application other than the browser do not use it. BUT a true VPN that is using SSL will look exactly the same but carries all traffic.

You have one software that only does traffic from the web browser and another that does all traffic and it look exactly the same.

There really is no simple way to tell what someone really means anymore.

 

[Ra_V_en]

The thing is VPN might work on lower OSI layer then proxy, which gives it a huge advantage considering privacy since on each layer of transportation you can put another level of security. This is something proxy certainly is lack of.
As said above by bill001g obviously there is dozen of different VPN configuration and quite few of them can have even lower security level then some good grade proxies but it doesn't mean it's true in general.

 

[ssali27]

check out this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vpn-vs-proxy-service,4087.html
hope will help you to differentiate between proxy and vpn