MEGAPROXY® FREE (BASIC) PRIVATE SURFING

<<< BACK TO SUPPORT HOME

GETTING STARTED WITH THE MEGAPROXY® SERVICE

-1 -   Why is the free service is restricted?

Our FREE (BASIC) PRIVATE SURFING SERVICE is intended only as a basic preview to the much more powerful and advanced WEB SSL VPN and as an introduction to Megaproxy® general functionality. The main reason for the free (basic) service restrictions lies in the potential for service abuse by automated download tools, traffic generators, hitboots, and others.

^ TOP ^

-2 -   What are the current restrictions on the free service?

Please explore the FREE (BASIC) SERVICE RESTRICTIONS web page.

^ TOP ^

-3 -   The Megaproxy® free (restricted) service offers private surfing free of charge. What is the catch?

There is no catch. The basic (free) service is not a technology showcase. It is intended only as a limited introduction to demonstrate the basic functionality of the elements that make the Megaproxy® Advance Web SSL the best in the field. Accordingly, it has limitations regarding what you may access and how often you may do so in a given day.

^ TOP ^

-4 -   I received an "HTTP POST" error. What does that mean?

HTTP "Post" is one of the HTTP protocol methods used to exchange data between a remote site and a browser. For example: a site login, search forms, or basically anything that requires user input to be submitted by processing by a remote web site.

^ TOP ^

-5 -   Does the free service offer any protection for my browser history?

No, but our subscription service does. Our advanced WEB SSL VPN service does have a security feature ("URL ENCRYPTION") that allows for your Internet browser history to be partially scrambled.

^ TOP ^

-6 -   Can I bookmark pages with the free service?

Yes. In fact, Megaproxy® offers a convenience bookmark shortcut on the Megaproxy® toolbar interface. Please note that bookmark functionality is restricted with older versions of Netscape and Opera.

^ TOP ^

-7 -   I cannot login to Yahoo! web mail. Whats is going on?

The problem is caused when the HTTP "POST" method is disabled on the free (basic) service.

^ TOP ^

-8 -   How does the free service handle Internet cookies? What are SmartCookies?

Internet Cookies are small pieces of information generated by an application running on a web server. They are stored on your local hard drive for further retrieval. The information stored in the cookie can be used for web page personalization, shopping carts, or session tracking by marketing companies interested in profiling your online activities. The use of web cookies has gained extreme popularity among webmasters, but the old Internet user quick fix of disabling browser cookies is laden with problems: it will leave the user unable to access popular sites and will result in broken web pages attributed to the disabled cookie functionality. To overcome the limitations poised by web cookie design without sacrificing functionality, Megaproxy® has developed an efficient solution in the form of a cookie rewriting mechanism. We take the original cookie, encrypt it, and then transform it into a short-lived session state cookie that is stored within your browser memory. These SmartCookies ("session-state cookies") are never written to your local hard drive and automatically disappear when you close the browser. COOKIECENTRAL.COM is a great resource dedicated to users who want to learn more about Internet cookies.

^ TOP ^

-9 -   After using your free service for a while, I notice that it is getting slower? What is happening?

While the session-state cookie management system of our free service is a valuable asset for users intent on maintaining the integrity of their web experience, it does have a number of significant limitations (which are not present in Megaproxy's advanced subscription service). A browser will only allow a small number of cookies to be stored in memory from a single domain. For example, Internet Explorer will only save 20 session-state cookies; Netscape browser will accept up to 40 cookies per domain name. Basically, when a browser "cookie jar" gets filled, the session-state cookie handling mechanism is no longer able to work properly. Another significant performance pitfall of session-state cookie handling is that all session-state cookies have to be transferred from a browser to Megaproxy® with each HTTP request. It does add up quickly, considering that encrypted session-state cookies are much larger than their original size. The short-term solution is to close the web browser and reconnect to the Megaproxy® system again. The more effective recommendation is to upgrade to our advanced Web SSL VPN service, which offers remote ("server-side") Internet cookie handling. Our advanced Web SSL VPN service stores your Internet cookies in a secure online database so that the web cookies are never delivered to your workstation and can never fill up the available browser memory space. This centralized cookie storage approach alleviates all the problems imposed by session-state cookie management, while allowing you to access and manage your Internet cookies from any browser anywhere, at anytime.

^ TOP ^

-10 -   Is there any way that I can see my session-state (Megaproxy® SmartCookies)?

Yes, you can see the Internet cookies stored in your Internet browser memory by using a simple JavaScript trick. Just paste the following JavaScript code in your browser address bar to see all cookies sent to you from the site currently displayed in your browser window:

JavaScript:alert(document.cookie);

^ TOP ^

-11 -   Sometimes the free (basic) service is fast and sometimes it is slow. What is going on?

Megaproxy's free (restricted) service has a limited capacity and can only support a certain number of simultaneous users. Megaproxy® recently introduced warning messages: ("Server is busy, please try again later") to warn free service users that the service is overloaded.

^ TOP ^

-12 -   Can I use FTP protocol to anonymously download files?

Anonymous FTP protocol support is not available on the free (restricted) service. If you need to be able to download files anonymously using FTP protocol, please CONSIDER UPGRADING to our Advanced Web SSL VPN service.

^ TOP ^

-13 -   Can I connect to secure (HTTPS://) web sites using the Megaproxy® free (basic) service?

Yes, you can. However, please keep in mind that a direct SSL connection to a remote web site is always more secure and reliable.

^ TOP ^

-14 -   What is the difference between the advanced subscription service and the free service?

Our free service is intended only as a preview of the subscription service and as a demonstration of our general functionality. It is enabled in "read-only" mode and has a number of RESTRICTIONS that prohibit the exchange of information with remote sites. Additionally, the free service lacks many of the privacy and security features offered by our advanced service, such as access to our secure customer portal, Online Cookie Management, Private bookmark organizer, URL Encryption, Anonymous E-mailer, FTP protocol support, and many others. Please refer to this link for a detailed OVERVIEW of the features of the Megaproxy® advanced service.

^ TOP ^

-15 -   Can I send e-mails privately with Megaproxy® ?

Web-enabled private E-Mail sender (one-way only) is one of the features offered by Megaproxy's advanced service and enjoyed by our customers.

^ TOP ^

-16 -   JScript, VBScript, and ActiveX functionality seem to be removed from web pages accessed by the Megaproxy®. Is this normal behavior?

For the free (restricted) service, yes. Safer handling of JavaScript and Macromedia Flash is one of the many features offered by the advanced service.

^ TOP ^

-17 -   Do you process CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)?

Yes. We rewrite Cascading Style Sheets version 1 or 2, as well as the subset of the emerging version 3 standard.

^ TOP ^

-18 -   What is ProxyOS ?

ProxyOS is a code name for the extensive modular architecture that powers the Megaproxy.com servers. Unlike many other services that use "rapid-deployment" scripting languages, such as PERL or PHP,  Megaproxy's ProxyOS is a full-featured object-oriented architecture that powers Megaproxy's privacy and web security solutions.

^ TOP ^

-19 -   Where do I sign-up for the unrestricted service?

The Advanced Service subscription SIGN-UP! page is located HERE.