# What is a proxy server? | SoftGlaze Browser glossary

> A proxy server forwards your traffic so sites see its IP address instead of yours. How proxies work, the main kinds, and one proxy per browser profile.

- Canonical URL: https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/proxy-server
- Last updated 2026-11-09

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[Proxies and networking](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary?category=proxies-and-networking)

## Proxy server

Also called proxy, forward proxy, exit IP, proxy pool

Definition

A proxy server is a computer that forwards your requests to websites and passes the answers back, so the sites see the proxy's IP address instead of yours.

Last updated 7 November 2026

### How it works

Your browser connects to the proxy instead of to the website and tells it where the request should go. The proxy makes the connection, and the website sees the proxy’s address, its “exit IP”, as the visitor’s. For HTTPS the proxy only relays the encrypted connection, so it sees which site you reach but not the pages or data inside.

Proxies are described in two ways. By protocol: HTTP proxies and SOCKS proxies differ in how the browser talks to them. By where the exit address comes from: datacenter, ISP, residential and mobile proxies differ in who owns the IP address and how a site’s reputation databases see it.

### Why it matters when you run several accounts

Without a proxy, every profile on your computer leaves from your own IP address, which ties them together however separate their cookies and device values are. A proxy per profile gives each one its own network location. The location then has to fit the profile: the time zone, language and WebRTC address should agree with where the proxy exits.

### How SoftGlaze Browser handles it

Proxies live in a pool shared by the workspace, and one proxy can serve as many profiles as you choose. Profiles use HTTP and SOCKS5 proxies; SOCKS4 works only in Firefox profiles. Paste them one at a time or as a list, or connect your account with any of 36 providers. A check returns the exit IP and its country, the latency, a blocklist result and a health grade from A to F. The app doesn’t sell proxies; you bring your own.

### Sources

1.  [Proxy server (glossary)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Proxy_server) MDN Web Docs
2.  [Proxy servers and tunneling](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Guides/Proxy_servers_and_tunneling) MDN Web Docs

Outside sources were checked in November 2026. Browsers, standards and vendors' pages change, so details that depend on them are as of that month.

### Related terms

-   [HTTP proxy](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/http-proxy) An HTTP proxy is a proxy that speaks the web's own protocol: the browser sends it ordinary HTTP requests, and for HTTPS asks it to open a tunnel to the site with the CONNECT method.
-   [SOCKS5](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/socks5) SOCKS5 is a proxy protocol that relays network connections of any kind between your device and a destination, with optional username and password authentication, and can pass the destination's hostname for the proxy to resolve.
-   [Residential proxy](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/residential-proxy) A residential proxy is a proxy whose exit IP address belongs to a home internet connection, so sites see traffic arriving from an ordinary household rather than from a server in a data centre.
-   [Datacenter proxy](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/datacenter-proxy) A datacenter proxy is a proxy whose exit IP address belongs to a hosting or cloud company's data centre, which makes it fast and cheap but easy for sites to recognise as a server rather than a person's connection.
-   [VPN](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary/vpn) A VPN (virtual private network) is an encrypted tunnel that carries all of a device's network traffic to a VPN server, so every app on the device appears to come from the server's IP address.

### Read more on this site

-   [Proxy pool](https://browser.softglaze.com/features/proxy-pool)
-   [Docs: proxies](https://browser.softglaze.com/docs/proxies)
-   [How to check if a proxy is working](https://browser.softglaze.com/blog/how-to-check-if-a-proxy-is-working)
-   [Antidetect browser vs VPN vs proxy](https://browser.softglaze.com/blog/antidetect-browser-vs-vpn)

### See it in SoftGlaze Browser

Separate profiles, each with its own cookies, device values and proxy, on Windows. Try the app's screens in your browser first, or start the free trial; no card needed.

[Download for Windows](https://browser.softglaze.com/download) [Try the demo](https://browser.softglaze.com/demo) [All terms](https://browser.softglaze.com/glossary)