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Is there any different between HTTP tunnel and HTTP proxy?
In some software I see two fields for proxy either HTTP and HTTP tunnel. I see the traffic of some http proxy but I cant understand the different between http proxy and http tunnel.

  • Possibble duplicate of https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12026247/what-is-the-difference-between-an-http-proxy-and-a-socks-proxy – Geeky I Oct 18 '17 at 07:46
  • Possible duplicate of [what's distinction of HTTP proxy, tunnel, gateway?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10377679/whats-distinction-of-http-proxy-tunnel-gateway) – Xpleria Oct 18 '17 at 08:00

1 Answers1

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The terms are often intermixed, tunnel providers are called proxies.

Originally, tunneling is the technique of using one protocol to transport data inside another protocol.

A proxy (as in proxy representative) A proxy acts as an intermediary. It will hide your IP address from the destination (unless it adds it in a HTTP header field such as "Forward"). A proxy uses the same protocol throughout, it can alter the network flow, do caching or security scanning etc. So it's more of an extra hop on the way to the destination.

For example you can use a SOCKS proxy as a HTTP tunnel, i.e. you transport HTTP over it. This is due to the fact that SOCKS is a protocol that is designed to tunnel IP packets.

To add to the confusion, you can use a HTTP proxy to transport some other protocols such as FTP.

A good example for a tunnel is a VPN. Tunnels are often used to evade censorship or firewall rules blocking traffic.

neuhaus
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  • I see this comment in above post : HTTP proxy is able to support high level protocols other than HTTP if it supports CONNECT method, which is primarily used for HTTPS connections. –  Oct 18 '17 at 08:01
  • Yes, to add to the confusion, you can tunnel other protocols through HTTP proxies by using CONNECT or - if the server does not support it - by using your own encapsulation. – neuhaus Oct 18 '17 at 08:02
  • so the main problem is that what other technique for making a http tunnel. I search for find some pcap file but I could'nt. –  Oct 18 '17 at 08:09
  • If you're looking for ways to tunnel HTTP, that is a separate topic. – neuhaus Oct 18 '17 at 08:13