Important Tips

What is a proxy server?
A proxy server is a kind of buffer between your computer and the Internet resources you are accessing. The data you request come to the proxy first, and only then it transmits the data to you.
What is an anonymous proxy server?
Anonymous proxy servers hide your IP address and thereby prevent unauthorized access to your computer through the Internet. They do not provide anyone with your IP address and effectively hide any information about you and your reading interests. Besides that, they don’t even let anyone know that you are surfing through a proxy server. Anonymous proxy servers can be used for all kinds of Web-services, such as Web-Mail (MSN Hot Mail, Yahoo mail), web-chat rooms, FTP archives, etc.
Why do I need to use proxy servers?

1. Transfer speed improvement. Proxy servers accumulate and save files that are most often requested by thousands of Internet users in a special database, called “cache”. Therefore, proxy servers are able to increase the speed of your connection to the Internet. The cache of a proxy server may already contain information you need by the time of your request, making it possible for the proxy to deliver it immediately.

2. Security and privacy. Anonymous proxy servers that hide your IP address thereby saving you from vulnerabilities concerned with it.

3. Sometimes you may encounter problems while accessing to web server when server administrator restricted access from your IP or even from wide IP range (for example restricting access from certain countries or geographical regions). So you try to access those pages using an anonymous proxy server.
What is a public proxy server?
It is a proxy server which is free and open for everybody on the Internet. Unfortunately most of them are not anonymous.
What is a pay proxy server?
Anonymizer - a pay proxy server with plenty of features. Effective for personal use, when your Internet activities are not involved in very active surfing, web site development, mass form submitting, etc. In short, Anonymizer is the best solution for most of Internet users. Ultimate protection of privacy - nobody can find out where you are engaged in surfing. Blocks all methods of tracking. URL Encryption protects you from your own ISP. Web Based - does not require any program installation or a configuration on your computer.
What is a free proxy checker?
Free service trying to provide daily updated list of public HTTP proxy servers. Usually provide small list of proxies with low percent of functioning servers due to hosting restrictions on CPU time (they simply can't allow themselves to check many proxies every second especially in parallel).