Transparent (non-transparent) proxy

Many proxy users think that by using Transparent proxy the client does not need to configure a proxy and cannot directly detect that its requests are being proxied. Its not true.

Transparent proxies improve the quality of service for you by delivering content at higher bandwidth and reducing transmission latency. If we didn't use proxies, customers would be traversing the internet, contending with peak traffic in other countries and under-performing servers and network links. The 'transparent proxy' is a proxy that does not modify the request or response beyond what is required for proxy authentication and identification".

The 'non-transparent proxy' is a proxy which modifies the request and response in order to provide some added service to the user agent, such as group annotation services, media type transformation, protocol reduction, or anonymity filtering".

A security flaw in the way that transparent proxies operate was published by Robert Auger in 2009 [1] and advisory by the Computer Emergency Response Team [2] was issued listing dozens of affected transparent, and intercepting proxy servers.

Source : http://surf-freedom.blogspot.com/2010/03/canadian-transparent-proxy-serv...