SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are cryptographic protocols that encrypt data transmitted between a client and server. TLS is the modern successor to SSL, and most "SSL" references today actually mean TLS.
When a client connects to a server over HTTPS, a TLS handshake occurs. The server presents its certificate, the client verifies it against trusted Certificate Authorities, and both sides negotiate an encryption key. All subsequent data is encrypted using this key. In proxy setups, TLS can terminate at the proxy (SSL termination) or pass through as an encrypted tunnel.
Most proxy users only need to understand this well enough to debug it, not configure it directly.
USER-country-de-session-task01The username carries the config: "country-de" picks the exit, "session-task01" holds it in place while SSL/TLS does its work underneath. No separate API call or handshake -- the label is the setting.
Measure this metric without a proxy first, so you know what the gateway adds versus what was already there.
This concept governs the connection to the gateway and the gateway to the target -- check both when something looks wrong.
KnoxProxy manages this at the infrastructure layer, so most jobs only need to understand it well enough to debug.
A new ISP, VPN, or office network can change how this behaves -- confirm it again after any local network change.
A proxy provider offers SSL-encrypted connections to their gateway, ensuring that your proxy credentials and target URLs are protected from your local network administrator.
TLS encryption between you and the proxy server prevents anyone on your network from seeing your proxy traffic. Without it, your proxy credentials and request data travel in plain text.
SSL is the predecessor to TLS. SSL 3.0 was deprecated in 2015 due to security flaws. Modern encrypted connections use TLS 1.2 or TLS 1.3. The term SSL persists in common usage but technically refers to TLS.
No. When a proxy tunnels HTTPS traffic (via CONNECT method), the encrypted connection passes through without the proxy reading the content. The proxy only sees the destination hostname, not the data.
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