Open proxy servers are those that do not require a password to logon or use.

Be warned - There are many dangers when using OPEN proxy servers.

Proxy servers require high Internet resources and bandwidth in order to be able to provide a public service. If someone is offering a free proxy service, you will want to make sure that the person or company has nothing to gain and that you can trust the connection. The Proxy Connection offers over 700 virtual proxy servers spread across three separate dedicated networks. Do not be DECEIVED! If someone is offering a free proxy service, there is a catch somewhere. Considering the cost of bandwidth and machine maintenance, a free proxy service is simply not feasible. If you are using a free proxy service or one of the many open proxy lists, you could be trusting your data, email messages, passwords or other personal information to a teenager that setup a proxy on the local school network. While thinking that using such a service has made you more secure, you have probably already become a victim.

Only proxy servers that are offered by an established company with direct phone lines and technical support should be used for security. An established business in the United States has their company and much more to loose by not providing a safe computing environment. If possible, always use a proxy server hosted by a company with some kind of security background. There are security concerns that need to be addressed. If you sign up for a proxy service that Joe started in his basement, you may miss out on a full stealth environment and the full protection that you desire. An established security company will have the experience and seasoned professionals to provide you with a safe service.

How Do I know If I Am Using An Open Proxy Server?
There are two common ways to close a proxy server. When a proxy server is closed it will either force you to connect -from- only one IP address or a range of IP addresses, or it will require you to use a user name and password to connect and use it.

If you do not need to type in a user name and password, it is virtually always an open proxy server.

Some Of the Dangers
There are many dangers that come along with using open proxy servers. This is why many online Internet services and companies have started checking or 'probing' your connection when you join their service. The probing that is done is simple and harmless, it simply checks to see if your connection has common proxy ports open. If the ports are found, the service will make sure that it is a closed proxy system by attempting to make a connection to it. If the connection is made, it will check to see if it requires a password to use it. If the proxy is found to be open it will raise a red flag and sometimes deny you from using or purchasing their services.

These service checks or probes are harmless. They simply make sure that the user is not on an open proxy. If the proxy is open, they have no way of making sure that you are who you claim to be. There are far to many hackers using these open servers to commit credit card fraud, attack other online users, hack into computers or any one of hundreds of other illegal activities. If you are using an open proxy, someone can be watching your every move! To date, there are COUNTLESS honeypots and hackerpots out on the net. While thinking that you have made yourself more secure, you have actually opened yourself up for attack. When using an open proxy server, your PC is making a direct connection to another computer. You also do not know who is in control of this computer. Your passwords can be sniffed and your firewall tunneled. Your privacy can also be invaded as this person reads your email, snags your ICQ, IRC, AIM, MSN messages or any other unencrypted data that is sent through one of these obvious honey or hackerpots.

Misconfigured Proxy Servers
Most times when a proxy server is open it is because it has been misconfigured on installation, or the person that configured the server was simply not aware of the dangers in leaving it open. Other times the server was not properly firewalled. In almost every case, you have no way of knowing if the proxy server was open deliberately or if is was a misconfiguration. There is no large banner that pops up and says "I left this proxy server open for everyone in the world to connect to and use, come and eat up my bandwidth". Most open proxy servers are simply 'scanned for' and 'found' misconfigured servers. This accounts for them being on a list one day and gone the next. Often, when the network bandwidth takes the hit of hundreds of computers using it at the same time, the open proxy problem is found and quickly resolved.

Public Proxy Lists
Beware! Those that scan for open proxy servers and then add them to a public list, do not care if you get in trouble while using them. If you are found using an unauthorized server, it could be a class II felony. The server that you are using could be located at some Government agency or a company with a top level Government contract. Your real ISP information will be available to them in their system logs and you could be hunted down and prosecuted.

Honey Pots
Honey pots are open computers that are just waiting for someone to find and exploit. After they are exploited, they are monitored for a time and then legal action is often taken against those using these exploited systems.

Honey Pot machines are used by the Government all the time. It is a known fact that many different Government branches setup honey pots to attract hackers, terrorists and other offenders. A honey pot is a machine that is placed on the Internet wide open for redirect or attack. Everything that is done on or through the system is logged and traced. While the system is being used, complete information about the perpetrator(s) is gathered. The 'hacker' becomes the 'hacked' and after a period of time they have the hacker and his friends right where they want them. If you happen across one of these open honey pot proxy servers, everything that you do and every password that you use will be sniffed and logged. Included below are only a few of the many articles that have been written about this topic.

By Keith Johnson, WSJ Interactive Edition
December 19, 2000 6:01 AM PT

When a group of suspected Pakistani hackers broke into a U.S.-based computer system in June, they thought they had found a vulnerable network to use as an anonymous launching pad to attack Web sites across India. But what they had done was walk right into a trap known as a honeypot -- a specially equipped system deployed by security professionals to lure hackers and track their every move. For a month, every keystroke they made, every tool they used, every word of their online chat sessions was recorded and studied. The honeypot administrators learned how the hackers chose their targets, what level of expertise they had, what their favorite kinds of attacks were, and how they went about trying to cover their tracks so that they could nest on compromised systems. [read the entire article :http://cert.uni-stuttgart.de...]

War drivers beware, the next wireless network you tap might be part of an elaborate sting. By Kevin Poulsen, Jul 29 2002 1:00AM
Hackers searching for wireless access points in the nation's capital may soon war drive right into a trap. Last month researchers at the government contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) launched what might be the first organized wireless honeypot, designed to tempt unwary Wi-Fi hackers and bandwidth borrowers and gather data on their techniques and tools of choice.
[read the entire article: http://online.securityfocus.com...]

For a good article on honeypots:

The Value of Honeypots, Part One: Definitions and Values of Honeypots by Lance Spitzner with extensive help from Marty Roesch last updated October 10, 2001
[read the entire article: http://online.securityfocus.com...]

Hacker Pots
Hacking is at an all time high. The knowledge required to break into a computer system a few years ago took some study and time. Today with the vast library of information and hacking tools, anyone with limited knowledge could get past a firewall or infect a computer with a trojan. Hackers of today, do not require much learning or effort at all. There are many 'over-night' hackers that grow daily one step at a time, looking to learn the next method on the list for finding their victims. Government agencies are not the only ones that setup honey pots. All a hacker needs to do is to put a proxy server up on his, or a victim's computer and wait for a few hours for a scanner to find it. Within a day or two it is on a public list and his packet sniffer is working overtime collecting users credit card numbers, passwords and other personal information. While you use his open proxy server, every web page that you visit, every message that you send and every password that you type is logged. The Hacker Pots work the same way as the honeypots shown above work, only are being run by hackers. You never know when using an open proxy server if you are using a hackerpot or honeypot, but either way you can be sure that someone is watching you somewhere when you are on an open proxy server.

Reliability And Privacy
If you are looking for reliability and privacy, open proxy servers are not for you. When the proxy is open to everyone, it is being used by many people at the same time. If the user to bandwidth or the user to CPU ratio is not in sync, the system will drag down to a SLOW crawl. When you purchase a proxy account, the proxy provider will need to keep up with their service and add computers and bandwidth to accommodate their customers. When using an open proxy, you will find that the server is up one day and gone the next. Most times this is because the server was misconfigured and the high bandwidth usage attracted the administrators who closed or fixed the proxy. In such cases the system logs are almost always sent to the federal computer crime squad. You also may spend hours searching for another proxy in the list that is working, only to find that it is too slow to even load a full text URL in under five minutes. Using an open Internet proxy can turn your five minute Internet task into a three hour event, all for the sake of saving a few dollars.

The Proxy Connection Servers
All of the Proxy Connection Servers are secure and located In-House. All of the top level domain names are owned solely by The Proxy Connection and are completely legal to use as one of our valued clients.
You never have to worry about what server or network you are connected to. Here at the Proxy Connection we value your privacy and commit ourselves to your having a safe and anonymous computing experience.