Military Proxies, Why they are used.
Around the globe, the US has men and women serving in the army. These brave soldiers are defending our country under what can be very harsh conditions. While it can be argued that they chose to serve in the military freely, we still owe them our thanks. It’s up to us to make certain they have everything they need to be safe when deployed. Safety however, is not just making sure they have the military equipment, it also demands that we provide a way to let off steam. The USO does a great job at this with shows right at the front line. Remember, a soldier’s best weapon is his or her mind. If they are well cared for, they will be better prepared. Years ago, all the military had was R & R, letters from home and the USO. Now soldiers on the front line also have access to other entertainment via the Internet.
So what would a soldier want to access on the Internet. Believe it or not, one of the things they do is watch TV online. They can catch their favorite programs or watch sports. Most of the TV networks put their some of their newest episodes online. For others, they can access media sites that aggregate content. Another source for media is the online newspapers like the New York Times. Or maybe they want to read their home town paper online. Today most, if not all papers, have an online version. So between TV, sports, and newspapers, they can catch up on the latest US media and news.
Instead of TV, they might be on social networking sites like FaceBook or MySpace. For those who have not served in the military, you can’t imagine how much of a gift these websites are to lonely young men and women far from home. With a click of the mouse, they can see friends and loved ones. They can catch up on the latest happenings in their families or circle of friends. They can see videos, pictures and general news. And maybe, just maybe, some of the loneliness might go away. Yes, they are still at the front. Yes they are still in harm’s way. But they have a connection back to their normal every day lives. Unfortunately, they can’t always connect back to these US websites. You’d think the Internet is available everywhere.
There are a couple of problems that prevent people from accessing websitesbased in the United States from overseas. The first is that the Internet connection they are using might be censored by the country they are stationed in. Don’t believe me; just do a web search on Internet censorship. You will be both amazed and horrified. What we take for granted in most democratic nations is not true around the world. The second reason they can’t access some of these sites is purely financial. Many media websites are financed by advertisers. Advertisers only want to pay to reach their target market. So for instance, if a candidate for Governor was running ads, they really don’t want to spend money to campaign in Europe. Their target audience is much more defined. As with every problem though, there is always a solution. In this case the solution is to use a proxy.
So what is a proxy, or anonymous proxy? A proxy is an Internet server that changes the IP address that the surfer has. It does this by establishing a connection to the surfer and then acting as the originating point for the Internet communications. In this way, the destination websites will see the IP address of the proxy and not that of the surfer. If the proxy has a US IP address, then the websites will think that the person is in the US and not overseas. This is how websites blocks can be bypassed. If the proxy also uses encryption, then banned websites can be accessed too. That’s because the encryption bypasses the censorship. So by using an anonymous proxy, our military personnel deployed abroad can still access the websites they used to enjoy at home.
