Whether you are using the internet from a school, work, library or any other firewall protected area, companies offering internet proxies claim that you will still be able to access blocked websites and remain totally anonymous.

Some even say that you will able to go to an amazing number of social networking sites such as: Myspace, Bebo, Facebook, Orkit, Friendster, and hi5. Even though these websites would be blocked from public schools, colleges, libraries, and most company offices, they claim you can go to all these places and more without your identity being known.

Another such proxy server says that through them you can even go to YouTube and Myspace video sites with no one being able to discover your IP address or your true identity.

Some proxy servers claim that they can enable you to bypass local proxies and security restrictions, surf through blocked sites, and just move about privately and securely without even having to install any software on your computer. One of these servers says that what they do is put a ?privacy cloak over you? so that no one will know who you are or that you are hiding there.

It is even claimed that, with the use of an internet proxy, you will remain anonymous when you browse the web through a public web proxy and that the website cannot even find your real IP address. You do not have to configure or update anything locally, and yet everything will be prepared and working properly.

One such site offers ssl and non-ssl sites and comes with no bandwidth or geographical restrictions. This site offers service that is completely free of charge.

Another one of the many pages of advertised servers says that they have created anonymous web surfing through an intermediary so that they can prevent all unauthorized third parties from being able to gather any of your private or personal information.

If all these internet proxy servers are free, why are there so many of them? They seem to pretty much make all the same claims with just a variation here and there. Is there really a need for so many sites to say the same thing? Maybe there is more to all this than meets the eye? Makes you wonder!

Although it seems disconcerting that a criminal-type could do this to look for victims, it really can be a protection for responsible citizens. Would you want to go to a website and have the server be able to obtain personal information about you? The idea that you can keep your email address or other things private is a good thing. Maybe you better wear that cloak after all!

Proxies do offer a level of protection while you are browsing the internet. But you must remember that they do not give you complete anonymity. Using a proxy will certainly not allow you to break any laws without getting caught - you still have to behave.