Virtual private networks offer extensively greater security and anonymity because they encrypt your entire internet connection. We should reiterate, however, that VPN is an all-around superior privacy technology than a SOCKS5 proxy. In fact, because a proxy server doesn’t have to expend resources to encrypt traffic, it’s often faster than a VPN connection with strong encryption. Unlike a virtual private network that deliberately scrambles your internet activity so that it is illegible to third parties, a proxy server does not offer encryption properties whatsoever. While both VPN and a proxy server can mask your ISP-issued IP address, their similarities really end there. However, if your main priority is to obfuscate your personal IP address for connecting to Tor, then a SOCKS5 proxy connection may be just what the doctor ordered! What is the difference between SOCKS5 proxy and VPN? If strong end-to-end encryption is a high priority for your online activity, than a VPN is what you should be using. So, the real question at hand is more plainly, ‘When would I use a SOCKS5 proxy instead of VPN?’ That answer has more to do with your personal security preferences and internet connection speed than any concrete answer. Just as you would use VPN to conceal your digital fingerprint, a SOCKS5 proxy is used to mask your IP address in order to bypass geolocation restrictions and restrictive firewalls. Additionally, since SOCKS servers do not distinguish between network traffic types (such as HTTP for web browsing, SMTP for email, etc.) they are considered to be the most flexible for proxy server protocols. SOCKS5 is an extension of the SOCKS protocol that supports advanced networking technologies, such as the UDP protocol and IPv6. SOCKS, which is formally recognized as ‘Socket Secure’, is a protocol specifically used for proxy servers. Any internet traffic that is directed through a proxy server will appear to originate from the proxy server’s IP address, not your personal address. What is a proxy server?Īs context clues may provide, a proxy server is an application or a computer system that acts as a middleman between your computer and the greater internet at-large.

This tab, labeled “SOCKS5 Proxy” is the place where the SOCKS5 proxy is managed. The next time you log in to your IPVanish Control Panel, you may notice a tab next to our server list. Now that we’ve ironed out those details, we thought we’d share just what that is. Over the years, our team’s received an influx of requests for a SOCKS5 proxy.

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