What a Web Proxy Is, and When to Use a Proxy Instead of a VPN

A VPN builds a tunnel at system level and every byte the device sends goes through it — apps, games, system updates. A web proxy works one layer up, inside the browser: the browser sends each request to the proxy server according to its proxy settings, and the proxy fetches the site and returns the result.

So the difference is not security or speed but scope. Use a VPN when the whole device should take the route; use a web proxy when one browser should and everything else should stay local.

RoyalShield’s web proxy runs over an encrypted HTTPS connection and uses the same username and password as the VPN, so one account switches between the two at will.

• A company or school laptop: no VPN client allowed, no admin rights, but browser extensions are permitted.
• Already on a corporate VPN: two VPN clients fight each other, while a web proxy lives inside the browser and coexists with the corporate one.
• A poor network where the VPN keeps dropping: a proxy has no long-lived connection to maintain; each request stands alone, and after a drop the next request simply reconnects.
• Only one browser should take the route: the work browser stays local while a second browser is dedicated to blocked sites, and neither affects the other.

• Video and music apps: players usually ignore the browser’s proxy settings — the page loads but the video will not play.
• Phone apps, games, desktop software: none of them read the browser’s proxy.
• A mainland IP for Tencent Video or iQIYI: even inside the browser, the site also checks IPv6 and DNS, which a web proxy cannot control.
• When DNS must also take the route: the proxy server resolves names for browser requests, which is usually enough, but system-level DNS stays local.

1. Install the ZeroOmega extension (the maintained successor of SwitchyOmega); this site’s web-proxy page links each browser’s install page.
2. Log in to this site, click “copy the extension restore URL” on the web-proxy page, then in the extension’s Import/Export use “Restore from online” with that URL — regions, addresses and encryption are imported at once, nothing typed by hand.
3. Pick a region profile from the extension icon and enter your site username and password in the browser’s login prompt. From then on, changing region is one click on the icon.
4. Open an IP-lookup page to confirm the exit is in the region you chose. To go back to a direct connection, switch the extension to “Direct”.

• The login prompt keeps reappearing: the account has expired or the password is wrong. Check the expiry on the site.
• Some sites fail while others work: usually an “auto switch” rule in the extension sends those domains direct. Try the global proxy profile once.
• Inside China, on carrier networks only HTTPS sites open: plaintext HTTP requests are rewritten in transit and only encrypted connections get through; nearly every site is HTTPS now, so the impact is small.
• Slow: change region. The proxy and the VPN share the same servers, so the same region logic applies.