What are anonymous web proxy sites?
A proxy site is an intermediary between you and the web server you want to view. Normally when you request a page from a website, your computer directly accesses the server, transmitting all sorts of personal information, such as your IP address. This information can be used to trace you and find out who and where you are among other details. Also, it is not just the destination web server that knows these details, but also your originating gateway. The originating gateway is a server that connects your particular computer to the bigger internet and passes all internet traffic through it. This allows the gateway operator (your ISP, school or workplace) to do things like filter out certain traffic, and monitor what sites are being accessed.

Why would I want to use an anonymous web proxy server?
By using a proxy server, you are obscuring the inforamation that is normally accessible to the destination web server and the originating gateway. To these hosts and to every other intermediate gateway that the internet traffic passes through, it looks like you are simply accessing the proxy site, rather than the actual destination site. In addition to being able to surf the world wide web anonymously, you can also get onto blocked applications like facebook or myspace because to the originating gateway, it doesn't look like you are accessing these sites.

How does an anonymous web proxy work?
When you request a page from one of the proxy sites in this list, you will enter in a URL that you want to surf. Your computer will then send a form submission to the proxy server with this information. The proxy server then acts like your agent, and makes a second request out to the actual URL that you want to view. When the proxy server does this, it acts like it is requesting the page of its own volition, as if some imaginary user in California, or Canada, or Russia is actually making the request on your behalf. In so doing, it sends along its own personal information when making the request, not yours. So if anyone were to trace the request, they would believe that it originated from wherever the proxy site is located. Since you are nowhere near the actual location of the proxy server, and you have no associations or affiliation with it whatsoever, there will be absolutely nothing linking you to having made that internet request.

How do I choose a proxy server from the proxy list?
There are three categories of proxies in the proxy list. The first is a list of recommended proxies, which are sites that have chosen to advertise on the proxy butler site. These are going to be the most reliable because the site operator is actively maintaining it and making it available for others to use. The next category of proxies on the proxy list are the "good" proxies. These are sites that have chosen to link back to proxy butler with a banner. You may have come here by clicking on one of those. These sites are likely to also be fairly well maintained, but not nearly as much as the recommended proxies. The other proxies are last resort options or if you just want to try something different. If in doubt, just click a few and see how well they work. You can always come back to proxy butler and find a different proxy if the one you selected doesn't work or if you don't like it for some reason. To help you get back here later, you can BOOKMARK PROXY BUTLER, or SET PROXY BUTLER AS YOUR HOME PAGE.