Can you specify a tcp socket connection to use a proxy?

Question

Apologies for the brevity of this question... I'm sure it's a simple yes/no type scenario only I can't nail that yes/no down..

Can you programatically specify a proxy for a tcp socket connection? Or does it use the system proxy?

Answer 1

Sure you can: instead of connecting to the server, connect to the proxy. You will have to use the proxy's protocol instead of the server's protocol to transfer the data.

Answer 2

It depends on the application and your system. If you have a proxy like Proxify, then you can specify to have ALL connections use the proxy.

Otherwise an application will need to be capable of using a proxy, and then you will need to tell it to use the proxy.

A small TCP client program will need to be given the address of the proxy, and coded to use the proxy protocol.

Answer 3

No. A proxy has an address, you can connect to that address and send it information. The proxy receiving the information will then send it to some other place. The system simply connects to a network location, whether the programming on that location behaves like a proxy it does not know.