If there is something that Internet users are increasingly concerned about, it is their privacy. To this we also have to add the security of your equipment and devices. Currently, the most demanded to achieve that anonymity and that guarantee of knowing that we are protected can be achieved with a VPN. However, it is not the only one since a Proxy could also allow us to hide our public IP. As these two elements can be good to improve privacy, it could be interesting if they can be used at the same time. In this article we are going to see if you can combine a VPN with a proxy to browse with more privacy.
Let’s start by seeing if we can combine a VPN with a proxy. Then we will see if the combination of both can have any disadvantage. Finally, we will see if there is a similar alternative that also serves to achieve anonymity.
Can a VPN be combined with a Proxy?
The first thing we are going to do is briefly explain how both services work. Its main objective is going to be to protect our privacy from Internet providers, governments, companies, and also cybercriminals.
A VPN or a virtual private network can be defined as a computer network technology, which will offer us an extension of a local area network over a public network such as the Internet. Its way of working is by making a connection with a remote VPN server, obviously, all that traffic will be encrypted and authenticated from our computer to that remote VPN server that can be anywhere.
A proxy , on the other hand, works differently, it is a server, program or device that acts as an intermediary between requests from a client to a server. In this case, what is achieved is that the request for resources that we have made as clients from an intermediary that is the Proxy, means that, for example, that website does not know our original public IP.
These two tools, without a doubt, can help improve our privacy on the network of networks. As for whether it is possible to combine a VPN with the Proxy , the answer is yes . What a proxy does, after all, is change our IP address and redirect traffic to another server. When using the Proxy, what we do is hide our public IP with it, and then the IP of that proxy with the VPN. This way we get a double layer of security.
Disadvantages of using a proxy and VPN at the same time
Not everything is positive when using both solutions at the same time. If we look at the speed section , it should be noted that we could have problems . Simply by using any of them, be it a proxy or VPN separately, it already implies that the connection speed can be reduced quite a bit. In this aspect, we could experience a noticeable loss of speed depending on the quality of that proxy and VPN.
We must also bear in mind that in some cases it can penalize our security and privacy . Especially if any of them is free, and that, in addition, could also slow down the speed. For this reason, in many cases it will simply be more interesting to use a quality paid VPN.
Alternatives to earn in anonymity
One way to achieve something similar would be to use two VPNs. When using a VPN it is as if our data traveled through a protected tunnel thanks to its encryption. In the event that we were to use a double VPN, a second layer of privacy would be added to a traditional VPN service.
In that aspect, it would be like having two tunnels that would keep us safe from the eyes of onlookers and cybercriminals. Finally, we could say that the use of a double VPN will give us greater guarantees as long as both are of quality.