Proxyrack - September 14, 2023

Using Proxies For School and College

Use Case

Ever been sitting in class or studying in the library, only to find you can't access the websites you need because your school or college has blocked it?

Sure, these restrictions might be in place to protect kids from accidentally coming across explicit content or to stop them from becoming distracted by social media, but they can be a right pain in the ass.

Sometimes, students need to unblock websites like YouTube to watch certain educational videos or access content from outside their region. For these situations, they need proxies.

In this guide, we'll explain why (and how) you should use proxies at school or college. Plus, we'll look at why it's important to avoid free proxy sites if you can due to the potential risks they pose.

What is a school proxy?

A proxy is a middleman between your device and the internet. Instead of your web requests going straight to the web server you’re trying to access, it first goes to the proxy. The proxy will then forward the request to the web server on your behalf.

The same thing happens when the web server sends back the web files. They’re first received by the proxy on your behalf, and then the proxy sends them to you. The web server solely interacts with the proxy’s server.

Hence, when you use a proxy, your browsing information is kept private. Since websites don’t communicate with you directly, they won’t know your IP address which means they won’t know your location or device you’re browsing with. They’ll read the proxy’s location instead and believe it to be yours.

With a proxy, you have the flexibility of browsing from any location of your choice. Proxies feature IP addresses from different countries and cities. All you have to do is select an IP address in the country that you want to browse from.

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Why might you need a proxy server in school?

Accessing blocked sites

If you use a computer in school or have access to a school laptop to help with your studies, chances are your system administrator will prevent you from accessing certain websites. Common blocked websites include YouTube, Facebook, gaming and music websites, sites with explicit content, and other popular social media sites.

First of all, a proxy will keep your browsing activities private. Your school or college might restrict students from accessing certain websites while on the premises. When you browse with a proxy, you’ll not be browsing from the school premises but from a different location. Therefore, even if you access these websites, you can’t be tracked by the school authorities.

Read more about proxies for website browsing.

Bypassing network monitoring

Some schools monitor the online activities of their students to see when users access websites (or even attempt to access them) that are blocked by firewall restrictions.

Using a proxy whilst at school can prevent your system administrators from monitoring your browsing history by giving you online anonymity. Instead of revealing your device's real IP address, the proxy will use a different IP address.

Accessing blocked or restricted sites in your region

If you're studying in a country where certain sites are blocked or access-restricted at a national level (i.e. outside your education authority),

Proxies allow you to access blocked websites that would be otherwise unavailable to users in your location. With a proxy, you can select a real IP address in any region where these websites aren’t blocked,

Say you're an international student spending a semester at a university or college overseas. If your host country enforces stricter access constraints than your home country, you may well find yourself unable to use all your favorite websites whilst abroad. Using a proxy, you can enjoy unrestricted access to all the websites you need by posing as someone browsing from a different server location.

Browsing anonymously

Online privacy is a big deal in today's world. Whether we're visiting websites at school or at home, we all want to protect our personal data with anonymous browsing that can't be tracked.

Proxies provide online anonymity by hiding the user's current location with a pseudonym IP address. This means that, in practice, the destination server thinks someone totally different is accessing a website.

Are there any risks with school proxies?

While proxies do offer many benefits, using a proxy site in school does come with challenges.

The main problem with using proxies for school is that the schools themselves often prohibit proxy sites entirely. This can be to protect the well-being of students by stopping them from accessing certain age-restricted content or to keep them focused on their course materials by blocking social media sites and other common distractions.

The best way to avoid getting caught is by using a residential or ISP proxy from one of the best proxy sites. Unlike datacenter proxies that have random IP addresses, residential and ISP proxies use the genuine IP addresses of real devices meaning your activities will be far harder to detect.

Try to avoid using a free proxy website as these will almost always be less secure and more susceptible to detection by your school or college's administrators.

Why choose ProxyRack for school proxies

If you want to visit a blocked URL anonymously or unblock websites whilst at school, having the right proxies is essential.

With a ProxyRack subscription, you can benefit from all the best proxies for school. We have millions (literally) of premium proxies available, and they can be all yours in just a few short clicks.

Our subscription plans include both residential proxies and datacenter proxies, so you can choose the ones that best fit your needs. Whether you want ultra-fast, reliable connections to blocked sites or you need to protect your identity by hiding your device's existing IP address, we have the right proxies for the job.

If you liked this guide, be sure to check out our other articles.

FAQs about proxies for school

Are school proxies ethical?

What is and isn't ethical will always be up for debate. Some critics will tell you that breaking school rules by going against user agreements is wrong and that students should respect their institution's stance on blocked websites and web pages.

Others see the access restrictions placed on certain sites as being an inhibitor to education and feel students should be able to browse the web freely in search of the resources they need to learn effectively.

Take YouTube, for example. There are millions of educational videos on YouTube which can provide students with the essential information, insights and perspectives they need to succeed in school. As long as the student using the proxy website is doing so with good intentions, there are no ethical issues as far as we're concerned.

How do you use proxies for school?

If you're new to using proxies, check out our help section. Here you'll find instructions for how to set up and start using a proxy server from a proxy site on your computer.

How do you unblock websites at school?

If you want to unblock YouTube and other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter whilst at school, you'll need to use a proxy. Proxy servers give you a new IP address and a different online identity, meaning you can access web pages that would otherwise be off-limits.

How do proxy sites work?

Proxy sites like Proxyrack are the online spaces where users can purchase, access, and manage their proxy servers.

Proxies work by hiding your device's IP address with another IP address, either someone else's if it's a residential proxy or a random IP address if it's a datacenter proxy. Essentially, the proxy acts as a mediator between you and the websites you visit, routing all requests and traffic through another virtual identity so you can browse the web anonymously.

To use a proxy site, the user simply needs to enter the blocked URL into the proxy site address bar and hit enter. The data request will then be sent to the destination server via the proxy IP address, and the user can browse the web page anonymously.

Should you use a free proxy site at school or college?

While it can be tempting to save some cash by using free proxy sites for school (especially if you're on a student budget), this is never advisable. The free version of a proxy server will be less secure, less reliable, and easier to trace than a paid-for or premium proxy. If you're serious about unblocking websites and anonymous browsing without being caught, always use the best proxy sites you can afford.