SOCKS5
The latest SOCKS proxy protocol that routes any kind of network traffic — TCP and UDP — through a proxy with optional authentication and no application-layer awareness.
Full Definition
SOCKS5 is the latest version of the SOCKS (Socket Secure) proxy protocol. Unlike HTTP proxies that operate at the application layer and are limited to HTTP/HTTPS traffic, SOCKS5 operates at the transport layer and tunnels any TCP or UDP traffic — making it protocol-agnostic. SOCKS5 also supports authentication (username/password) and optionally resolves DNS on the proxy server side rather than the client side, preventing DNS leaks. It is supported by most scraping libraries, all major browsers, and tools like curl. SOCKS5 is preferred when you need to proxy non-HTTP traffic or want to ensure DNS queries also go through the proxy.
