Looking to add a little more stealth and a little less “Here I am, world!” to your web browsing? StayInvisible not only catalogs free proxy servers but provides tools to test proxies and information about anonymity and encryption.

Many resources that provide proxy lists provide little else. StayInvisible has lists of proxy servers as well as online tools for testing just how anonymous your connection is: proxy checkers, IP verifiers, and email testers. In addition to the proxy tools, they also have a proxy encyclopedia to help you decipher the various terms used, and a basic text encryption tool.

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If you frequently find yourself browsing on a low-bandwidth connection, you can potentially speed up your browsing experience by using the compressing proxy server at Toonel.net. The concept is simple: install their application on your computer (versions are available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Sun Solaris, and even Windows Mobile and Symbian), then set your proxy settings to point to your localhost IP address on port 8080 (127.0.0.1:8080). Once you do, all of your web traffic is routed through Toonel.net’s server, which compresses it before it gets to you.

The compression used is lossless, which is required to ensure the pages show up as expected, though there are image-specific options that allow you to change the compression that is applied to JPEG and GIF images. This is likely only worthwhile on a very slow network, since it takes the server a bit of time to recompress images before your browser can download them, but could be handy on a struggling network.

I wouldn’t recommend running Toonel.net full-time, or even at all if you’re always on a broadband connection, but if you find yourself struggling with a lack of bandwidth, this is a great trick to have in your back pocket.

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