Can anyone explain to me what are proxies? (noob question)

[27]

?I saw these in a lot of the cracking guides and had no idea what do they do, why do they matter and why do they need to be good

! Can anyone please explain what are these to me? Thanks

[6.976]

Proxies are important in cracking(you can do without it also in some sites for safe and good result you choose proxies)
It basically are list of ips and port it's like if you using 100 proxies to check something so it means you checking that from 100 different pc at different locations so if you use them less chance your ip get ban by the site

[14]

Main difference between a proxy and a VPN is that a proxy is at an application level (http/https). VPNs tend to be a "all in one" solution where you connect, and all data/traffic is encrypted and anonymous.

Proxies on the other hand don't hide all data flowing from your device. If you have a list of proxy IPs/ports and add them to an application, that application will send requests via those proxies, keeping that specific request/connection anonymous - all while you can be browsing the net or watching YouTube on you PC as usual, with your normal IP. 

Easy way to think of it is:

If you want all your data to be anon, use a vpn.

if you need to hide your IP because you are brute-forcing logins to a website/app - use proxies.

Proxies are cheap and easily obtainable, but they're much less secure than a VPN.

Hope this helps!

[27]

I see, thanks for the explanation Sally and RazzleDazzle :D