Web proxy scripts overview

Proxy web sites or proxies are generally used for anonymous browsing and bypassing network restrictions. There are number of free web proxy scripts to build such websites. The most commonly used proxy scripts are Glype, PHProxy, Surrogafier, Zelune and CGI Proxy. Let's take a closer look at them:

Glype

Glype proxy is a free proxy script written in PHP. As on official website the benefits for its users are:

• server-side caching to improve speed for the end user


• javascript support allows more sites to be browsed without loss of functionality


• unique URLs provide greater privacy- once your session expires, any URLs stored in your history are invalidated


• virtual browser lets you choose your own user-agent and referrer, and even tunnel the connection through another proxy server

Have to say that Glype is the most popular PHP script for making web proxies now.
Large community and plugin based architecture allow to quickly integrate site-specific code for sites unsupported by the base proxy script.

PHProxy

PHProxy was popular a couple of years ago. But as of September 2007, this project is no longer under development.
The author abandoned this project and gave up the source code. There are several versions released after that but the project is dead.

Surrogafier

Surrogafier is a three tier web proxy written in PHP. It was not widely distributed
Pros:
Can remove cookies, HTTP referer, HTTP user-agent, on page java scripts, and objects; proxy tunneling, i.e. creating chains of proxies for extra security.
Cons:
AJAX applications might have problems with Surrogafier
SSL connection through Surrogafier is not secure (as stated on the official website)

Seems like it's not supported any more. The last release was on May 2007.

Zelune

Looks like Zelune is not supported either. The official web site says:
'Well we have now decided to put the new phphantom proxy script and the best bits of the zelune scripts together to makeTHE BEST PROXY NETWORK SCRIPT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN...'
but PHPhantom website seems a bit confusing
Our company offers a virtually unlimited list of capabilities because of our vast corporate networking. Within our alliance are companies of all sizes. When it comes to our business, we offer our customers a powerful resource and a recipe for success.
I hope they'll change default template's text soon.

CGI Proxy

The CGI proxy script written in Perl and acts as an HTTP or FTP proxy. It is very simple to install, and very configurable.
The features include text-only support (saving bandwidth), selective cookie and script removal, simple ad filtering, access restriction by server, URLs and cookies encoding, and more.

But there are officially stated limits and bugs:

• Anonymity MAY NOT BE PERFECT! In particular, there may be some holes where JavaScript can slip through.


• If you browse to many sites with cookies, CGIProxy may drop some.


• There are violations of the HTTP protocol.


• Only HTTP and FTP are supported so far.

CGI proxy script more compatible with websites, runs faster, uses less bandwidth, easier to enhance. The only disadvantage is the resource usage. CGI proxies use a lot of server CPU and RAM, so not all hosting services allow them.