Hi! I see both are servers that are in the middle of a connection.
Is it the same thing or is VPN just more secured?
Keep in mind, Im not a pro or anything but I dont see any replies here so figured I’d give my two cents.
A VPN connects you to a private network somewhere beyond your own router. You know how you have a LAN, with the router acting as a gateway to the internet? Well a VPN is one of those LAN’s, except it’s virtual. So multiple machines from across the internet can connect to the same VPN and be able to access each other as though they were on a LAN. You’re given a new local IP and access the internet through a new gateway IP.
A proxy server is just a server that you access which directs your requests through itself in order to disguise your public IP. It puts itself between you and the webservers you are trying to access.
A proxy server is an intermediate server that makes queries on behalf of an endpoint. Ex. I want to query google on “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The proxy server makes the query and sends it back to your computer.
A VPN is like plugging an ethernet cable directly into your machine from a far off network. You can now access network resources, and if you configure it correctly you can even make it look like your PC is coming from that network’s public IP. Ex. I want to access my home network from a public wifi. I turn on my VPN, now my internet traffic is encrypted and all of mt traffic looks like it’s coming from my home, not that public wifi.
VPN is encrypted traffic, Proxy servers aren’t always.
They have two different use cases and security purposes.
- Proxy Server serves to hide client IP and forward requests OR Reserve proxy can sit in front of a server to mask the Server IP.
- Proxy by definition and design does not encrypt traffic. Think of Proxy like a Speakeasy. Its about anonymity and web content filtering
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VPN is meant to encrypt all traffic or some traffic depending on settings and build a tunnel usually point to point. Like NordVPN is a tunneled connection between your device and the NordVPN servers. Its secure and anonymous. Where as with a proxy its not generally secure or not encryption just IP masking.
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Key Difference is security, encryption, tunneling, and type of content/use case.
For the Sec+ exam associate VPN with point to point or site to site tunneling, encrypted TRAFFIC (full/partial) and secure remote connection!!
- for Proxy just remember that it forwards client requests or sits in front of the server in order to accept requests on behalf of the server.
Some of yall need to look at the users experience level asking a question. User has the tag ITF+ and you CCNA and Net+ are coming in dropping terms left and right that are going to fly by their head.
Not saying dumb it down but don’t make it so in depth when the user is looking for a high-level response.
Yes they are similar… But also different
And the and the differences in similarity is kind of switch depending on if what type of proxy server you’re talking about and what type of VPN you’re talking about. It’s really confusing
They’re completely different. One could argue they are even opposites.
VPN is a routing function to extend local network access using other networks as a blind method of transport, it’s a tunnel to make the two ends act as one. Maybe you encrypt it to make a secure tunnel, maybe not.
Proxy is a repeater. Often the purpose is to hide the two sides from each other while still allowing traffic flow. Maybe you use it to locally cache traffic so you don’t have your whole userbase all doing the exact same thing over limited/expensive bandwidth, such as downloading a new patch.
They are nothing alike.
A proxy server is a server that sends a request to some other server, such as a web server, on behalf of one or more clients. Your computer at work does not directly connect to a website through the internet. Your request goes through a web proxy server, which takes your request and all the others and sends a request to the remote web server on your behalf. That way, one request gets sent to the remote web server, not one per computer.
A VPN is a secure session with a remote server. The VPN protocol creates a secure tunnel, and IPSec or TLS encrypts the data in transit.
Proxy is application specific and can be forwarded or reversed
While VPN is covers all of the System… Including apps… OS. Browsers and anything that involves networking
As a long time network engineer I’d say you grasp it pretty well.
This makes sense. Thanks for standing up and giving your advice
I have 2 questions, VPN would make your connection secure to only computers on the network or everything?
so proxy server makes my ip like if I was a ninja?
Just a small add here, VPNs are usually encrypted but they don’t have to be. A GRE tunnel is still technically a VPN even though it’s as clear as a telnet.
If you are curious though, this is a relevant post from another sub, it hits a lot of things I would add. https://www.reddit.com/r/hacking/s/djelg8s6c0
Certainly wouldn’t call them opposites as they have the exact same high-level effect of masking your true IP.
High also not a pro here
But doesn’t it necessarily depend on the proxy server type?
Because let’s say a jump server. A jump server is effectively both a VPN and a proxy server
so basically, the proxy mask my ip to join web sites while vpn is a private network where I can share things securely as if it was a lan?
masking your true IP
That is not the purpose of a VPN.
First, “true IP” is not a thing. IPs are just dynamic addresses to tell the networking hardware between systems where your traffic can eventually be broken down to L2 frames
Second, That sounds like you are confusing VPNs for privacy services using client-VPN to make your Internet entry point a different network than your local one. I have nothing against these services and would gladly recommend people use them but that’s kind of like saying automobiles are for getting a ride from your one airport concourse to another. Sure, that’s a legitimate use case but when someone asks what an auto is, describing an airport shuttle is a bit of a narrow view.
EDIT: I say they might be considered opposites because VPN’s core use case is to take unconnected networks and join them, making them appear connected when they aren’t. Proxy is taking two connected networks and making them appear separate while still allowing flow.
By jump I assume you mean something like a management server? Then yeah you might be doing ssh to it which you can then forward traffic through as a socks proxy. As for calling it a VPN, no but yes. At this point we’re kind of debating semantics. I would say that’s using a tunnel + proxy to achieve a function similar to a VPN. I would not call it a VPN because you’d have to hand configure each function you’re trying to do. A socks ssh tunnel will let you get to internal web ui but won’t necessarily allow a network file share or software that uses a unique port. I have in the past done this by running multiple ssh sessions, each for different port forwarding purposes.
A proper VPN would make the jump box unnecessary though, routing you in as though you’re actually connected. To be fair, a jump box could just host the server side of a user-vpn
Yeah so, a VPN between routers or firewalls basically acts like a point to point wire so routing can function the same way. Instead of a wire it’s made of a separate connection that already exists, usually the Internet.
Imagine two company buildings in different towns. Each has a firewall on say 123.0.0.1 and another has 124.0 0.1. they can talk over the Internet using these addresses. They also each have internal addresses like 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24. So the firewalls could have a VPN firm 123.0.0.1 to 124.0.0.1 and a user on 192.168.0.1 can now talk to a server on 192.168.1.10 as though there’s nothing but a router in between. Or you could have VPN software that can connect in from home and see those internal ips as though there’s just a router in between.
A proxy is basically man in the middle but for good things instead of sneaky. Imagine a work network with a proxy server near the modem, you go to Google but instead of your computer pulling the site into its memory, the proxy sees your request and pulls the site into its own memory then serves it to you and anyone else who goes to Google shortly after. That way 10 people going to Google only uses the bandwidth once, it can also check for malware and stop it or decide you shouldn’t be going to pornhub at work. Plenty of reasons to run it.
For what it’s worth, both VPN and proxy are usually done in the firewall these days. They’re pretty multi function now