Every day, more and more people decide to try to protect their online privacy and achieve as much anonymity as they can while surfing the web. There are many ways to stay anonymous, and even more are being developed that will be here in the future. For now, let’s check out some of them that are already here, compare them, and to see which method suits you best. In order to do that, this time, we’ve compared SOCKS5 Proxy and VPN.
Each of these two methods has pros and it has cons. What they have in common is that they’re both used by many people in order to protect their device, anonymously download torrents and generally speaking protect their online privacy, as well as remain hidden. Let’s see now what they are, what makes them different and which one you should use.
SOCKS5
SOCKS5, also known as Socket Secure, is a sort of protocol that was used in order to access proxy servers. It is basically an extension of the old SOCKS protocol that’s known for supporting advanced networking technologies, for example, IPv6 and UDP protocol. SOCKS5 is perfectly capable when it comes to transferring almost all types of data packets as well as protocols. The way it works is by masking the IP address of its user and by doing so, it can bypass things like restrictive firewalls and geolocation restrictions.
This is achieved by routing the data flow through a proxy server owned by a third party. This way, you can change the IP address of the app or the program you set SOCKS5 on, and when it comes to the third-party servers, you will need authentication if you want to get access to them,
VPN
VPN, also known as Virtual Private Network is just that, a private, protected network that one can use to hide their online activity. It requires remote servers owned by VPN providers, and when used, it generates traffic through those servers. Traffic then gets encrypted by the servers, and your IP also gets masked in the process.
When it comes to anonymity, this is one of the best solutions that exist. The only problem with the VPN is that it slows down your internet speed. The good VPN’s can only slow it down slightly, but the poor ones can take quite a lot out of it. On the plus side, your data will be completely encrypted, unlike the half-encryption that SOCKS5 offers in return for not slowing you down.
The Choice
So basically, the big question is which one to choose, and the answer depends on whether you appreciate your privacy or your internet speed. SOCKS5 is definitely faster since there’s no heavy data encoding, but while it only masks your identity, the VPN can protect you from being spied on by government agencies, advertisers, cyber criminals and even your own ISP. Let’s compare them even more.
Both of these can hide IP addresses and thus conceal the online identity of its user, but SOCKS5 won’t encrypt your traffic, while VPNs will.
You’ll get better speed if you use SOCKS5 when torrenting, but ISPs could still find a way to monitor your online activity, while there are no such risks while using VPN.
VPN also encrypts every piece of your data, while SOCKS5 can only be used for some things, like torrenting. VPN is also a better choice when it comes to accessing geo-locked content. Proxy servers also might keep logs, and if hacked, everything that you did can be accessed to, while many of the VPN’s don’t keep any logs in order to give you perfect anonymity.
Best Deals for Proxy/VPN?
Now that you know what these are, how they work, and what pros and cons they have, the question remains, which one should you get. A good thing is, you don’t have to make that choice. Some of the VPNs also offer SOCKS5 as part of the deal. TorGuard and IPVanish are both examples of this deal. There are no additional fees, for putting a proxy on the uTorrent app.
Some of you may be wondering if DNS proxies might be a compromise. This option is great for those of you who simply want to hide their real location in the purpose of unblocking some locked content that’s unavailable in your country, but that’s pretty much it for Smart DNSs. It doesn’t encrypt traffic at all, and apart from putting your signal somewhere else in the world, it doesn’t give any additional protection.
So, with all this said and done, it’s really your choice about what to use. It’s an opinion of many users that choosing privacy protection is a better option, and almost all of them will recommend using VPN, but, as we said, it’s entirely up to you.
