I will assume that you already know what proxy servers are and how they work (case you do not know please refer to the article How to buy from Amazon or how proxy server works). You already heard terms: transparent, anonymous or elite proxy servers many times, so what is difference between them? First of all please pay attention that proxy servers work in the same way despite the fact to which type they belong. In all cases they are gateways between you and the server you are requesting.
 
What is transparent proxy server?
The transparent proxy servers change your IP to their own one BUT your real IP is still presented in the request. So if the web site (you are requesting) needs to get your real IP they will easily find it in your request (imagine like it is just moved to the different place).

You can think that transparent proxy servers are useless since they cannot provide you a privacy (hide your IP) but do not be so hurry with your decisions. Transparent proxy servers have another advantage - they are faster than any anonymous or elite one (since nobody uses them). For example: if you are going to bypass local firewall then transparent proxy servers are the best solution for you. You do not need to hide your IP from anyone; instead you are hiding the web sites which you are opening.

BTW sometimes transparent proxy servers are good to increase the amount of hits on your web site hit counter (I am sure you will do that only for testing purpose and you will never try to cheat like some other 'dishonest' users are doing )

INTERESTING: if you are not using proxy server or using transparent one, your PC broadcasts your unique IP address. Every time you are opening a web page, the server where that page is located, has an information about your operating system (OS) and their for automatically exploit security holes in your OS. The one should not be a professional hacker with special knowledge to be able to hack your PC in that case. There are dozens of ready-made, easy to use and (warning) FREE to use software which any kid could use (please stop asking me where to get such tools, how to hack forum or email of your friend, I will not tell you ) With help of such software anyone can get access to all your documents, your private emails, your private pictures or movies you are keeping on your PC - thinking that they are kept safe and hidden from everyone To prevent such illegal hacking operation there is one solution: you need to hide your real IP, so nobody will know the address of your PC inside the wide Internet network.
 
What is anonymous proxy server?
Anonymous proxy servers do not transfer the information about your real IP address. That means you are like a ghost in the Internet. Nobody has even a clue about your real location and thus they cannot establish illegal connections to your PC for information stealing purposes.

The only POSSIBLE disadvantage could be the fact that web site you are browsing could know that you used proxy server for connection (you may hiding your IP address). From the other hand, if user uses proxy server that does not always mean he is trying to hide his real IP address. In some cases, like when you are using mobile WAP Internet, all users are forced to use proxy server for their connections (basically for monitoring purposes).

That is why the fact that you are using proxy server for connection sometimes will be treated as normal behavior and anonymous proxy server will safely hide your real IP.
 
What is elite proxy server?
Elite proxy servers are the most secure ones, they have all advantages of anonymous proxy server in the subject of privacy (they hide your real IP) plus they are TRYING to hide the fact of using proxy servers for connection. In other words, they behave in the way like you are not using proxy server at all and the IP address you are providing, is your 'real' IP address. The main thing you should know about elite proxy server is that they are more secure then anonymous ones but exactly this makes them very popular among surfers that at the end causes their slow speed.

You can always check how secure your IP is hidden from web site by visiting following link: Show My IP

So in short way, the advantages and the usage of the proxy types can be described as below:

Transparent Proxy Server:

• Advantage: very high speed
• Disadvantage: low privacy
• Particular purpose: bypass firewall restrictions (to access facebook, bebo, myspace, hi5, digg, youtube from school or work), fake web site hit counter, download files from filehosts (rapidshare, megaupload and others)

Anonymous Proxy Server:

• Advantage: average speed, average privacy
• Possible disadvantage: proxy usage fact is presented
• General purpose: most suitable for 99% of tasks

Elite Proxy Server:

• Advantage: high privacy, proxy usage fact is hidden
• Disadvantage: low speed
• Particular purpose: just very few cases when the fact of proxy usage should be hidden

WARNING: all material in this article are for educational purpose only

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Thanks for your question. Of course you can use our proxy servers to listen radio or even watch HD video. One good example is www.pandora.com web site. It allows listening music users only from US. You can use USA proxy servers to access this web site and enjoy the same service as US citizens.

That's important that you mentioned 'free proxy servers'. In other words you are looking for free solution, am I right? If you want to listen only Radio then you should try transparent proxy servers. They usually are faster than free anonymous ones. BUT you should understand that the main disadvantage of free proxy is that it is used by thousand of users at the same time. That in turn causes problems in streaming.

Currently we have updated PremiumProxySwitcher.com web site where you can have all those high speed proxy servers which are available on FreeProxyList.org for just 9.99 per month. We have developed Premium Proxy Switcher portable which works with leading browsers and makes proxy usage simple.

If you have any other question, feel free to ask

I see! First of all you are lucky that this streaming radio is located on 80 port (http:// like URL). That means any proxy will work with such resource. At the same time I hardly believe that you will be able to find any ready free solution. But if you are not lazy and you are ready to spend some time then here you are:

First of all you will need Premium Proxy Switcher portable - it is absolutely free software. Secondly you will need to find any web site with free proxy servers or you can check forums where proxy servers are shared among users (you can easily find such forum with help of google). You can easily extract proxy servers from some web site with this proxy extractor tool. The main problems with such free proxy lists are that proxy server in such list are mostly dead or really slow. Luckily Premium Proxy Switcher portable has built in proxy checker.

So once you have file with proxy servers (similar to this format 117.34.92.43:3128) you can start the program and click on 'manage proxy server' from the menu. You will see a window like this. Click on 'browser' button and select a file with proxy servers. Now you can click on 'proxy checker' from the menu and click 'check proxy servers' button. The program will check all loaded proxy servers. At the end you will be able to remove dead and see rating for each proxy server. The more starts proxy has the better it is.

BTW the only difference between solution which I described above and VIP members is that - VIP do not spend time searching and checking proxy servers. We do proxy check none stop 24 hours in 300 threads on our dedicated servers. So they just need one click to have recently checked proxy list loaded in the program and ready to use. Since you are from Caribbean and you cannot afford VIP access we have free solution for you. For more information please contact us by email.

Thanks for all your questions, let me answer them:

1) The country origin metter than you have geo based project. The good example for that could be Craigslist or any dating web site. As far as I know, some users use US proxy servers for thir product voting. That brings their offer in top postions and help them sell it faster. As for dating web sites - some of them allow users from one particular country, in that case users use proxy servers to access web site. The best example of blocking users by georgraphical location is Pandora radio. They allow uses only from USA, so if you are from Germany, you will never be able to listen to that radio (which is not fair IMHO).

2) I guess you are speaking about Premium Proxy Switcher portable program. The idea is that this program provides users with all features he/she may need. There are no reason of saving file in seperate TXT file. Proxy list is saved internally and could be used via program.

3) First of all we are the oldest proxy provider on the market. We provide that service since 2005 and our prices are always the lowest. Only at our web site, proxy servers are checked none stop 24 hours and updated as fast as every ONE minute. That in turn means - when you download proxy list, you are getting only most recently checked and fast proxy servers. As for uptime - let's say 60% of our proxy servers have uptime more than 15 days. Plus unlike other serivices, we provide over 15.000-25.000 different working proxy server during 24 hours. So it is up to you to decide, where to buy proxy service

4) If you need proxy servers for third party program then you should try our proxy service for web masters - freeproxylist.org. Since you are going to load more than ONE proxy at a time, the price at freeproxylist.org is higher than at PremiumProxySwitcher.com web site.

5) Actually I will suggest to read very interesting article. It is easy to understand but it will explain all basics in proxy world: Which proxy is better: public or dedicated proxy, CoDeeN, BotNets, anonymizers