Monday, 30 January 2012

Why US service men and women deployed overseas should use a proxy

By Suzanne Pepmanson


The servicemen and servicewomen of the US Military are overseas right now fighting for your freedom. They made this choice on their own yes, but it is a choice they made because they love the idea of freedom, and because they want to better themselves and their country. Remember it is not a choice that is made lightly by any means. It is something that they considered, and probably for several months. In the end they decided that fighting for freedom and making a stand was worth more than anything-even their own lives. That being the case they signed the papers, they boarded a plane, and now they sit thousands of miles away from home. Fortunately there have been some innovations that have provided soldiers with more entertainment than they would have had access to in the past. These innovations are centered around the Internet.

The first thing to consider is that a soldier would definitely want to watch US television. Sure they might have access to some television shows while they're overseas, but those shows might actually be outdated. With the advent of the web, American television shows are now available to any soldier, regardless of where they happen to be in the world. This is just one of the things that a soldier might want to do overseas, and it is a very important one. After all, what could be more relaxing than keeping up with the happenings on American television? There are so many new television shows and new things to see. But that's not all a soldier might want to do!

There are also several social networking websites out there that they can use to keep in touch with friends and family. Sure e-mail works to an extent, but if you have ever used any form of social networking, you know exactly how much simpler it is. You can type a message on your homepage, and suddenly all of your friends and family will be able to see it. Soldiers are very pressed for time, and sometimes there just isn't an opportunity to respond to every single person. This makes social networking extremely important. There is a problem however, a huge problem. Sometimes soldiers cannot get to the websites that they need. Why exactly? Well let's talk about it.

There are a couple of issues that prevent people from accessing sitesbased 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 Google search on Internet censorship. You will be both shocked and horrified. What we take for granted in most western nations is not true around the world. The second reason they can't access some of these sites is purely financial. Many media sites are financed by advertising. Advertisers only want to pay to reach their target market. So for instance, if a candidate for Senator 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.

An anonymous proxy hides the IP address of the user to one it has control over. A good anonymous proxy is also encrypted and protects any information sent over the Internet. With the change in the IP address to an IP address in the United States, the surfer can access US websites that are blocked because of the IP address. With encryption, the surfer can by pass in country blocks out in place by restrictive regimes. For many surfers an anonymous proxy is a way to protect their Internet identity. For our military, it's a way to access the web freely just as all people in the US can.




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