I found most of this text on another site, so I'm quoting the stuff about the env variables.


- Okay, but I see people and you saying 'use anonymous proxies' if you connect to it first aren't they all anonymous?

A. Nooo. There are different types of proxies:

Transparent proxies: These pass along full information, including your IP

Anonymous: These are anon proxies that do not pass along your IP, but also make no attempt to hide the fact that someone is using a proxy server

High Anonymous (a.k.a. Elite proxies): These hide all information, and the fact that they are a proxy server. Sites you connect to think for all intents and purposes the proxy server's address is yours

Gateways: Gateways are proxies that point to other proxies. For surfing they remain anonymous, because even though they will show their address and pass along another address, the addy they pass along will not be yours.



- What's the difference between different kinds of proxies like anonymous, transparent?
- What's a gateway proxy?
- What's a distorting proxy, or elite proxy?

A. Go to this site and run this test: http://stealthtests.lockdowncorp.com/cgi-bin/envtest


That's called an environmental variable test.

REMOTE_ADDR - IP address of a client
HTTP_HOST - a web server��s name
HTTP_USER_AGENT - browser type, operating system
HTTP_VIA - if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is an address (or several addresses) of a proxy server,and added by the proxy itself
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR - if it is not empty, then a proxy is used. Value is a real IP address of a client (your IP), and also added by a proxy server if you use one.
HTTP_FORWARDED - shows path you take to the server
HTTP_FROM - email address, if loaded/stored in browser

So those are env variables. Not all of them, but ones that really pertain here. You should have seen information filling in some of those on that page above after the test was done. Here's how it differs from proxy type to proxy type:

If you don't use a proxy, just a straight connection, it'll look like this:

REMOTE_ADDR = your true IP address
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

Transparent proxies look like this:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = your true IP

Anonymous proxies show this:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = proxy IP

High anon proxies (sometimes called 'elite' proxies) hide the fact a proxy is being used:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined

And finally, here's what a gateway (sometimes called distorting) looks like:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = proxy IP
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = random IP address


So basically, the only ones worth using are the High anon proxies:

REMOTE_ADDR = proxy IP
HTTP_VIA = not determined
HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR = not determined


I guess you could test each proxy with a site like: http://stealthtests.lockdowncorp.com/cgi-bin/envtest

But too bad there isn't an updated list somewhere, with only high anon.