PHTechnically, shadowsocks has nothing to do with VPN. It's not a VPN, it's a proxy. VPN is a virtual network interface which you can send everything through it. Proxy is a server used to forward data to another. There are two mainly difference between them.
1. To use a proxy, you had to let program know there is a proxy. But you don't have to config programs to use VPN.
For example. When you use shadowsocks, you should config your browser (like firefox) to use proxy. After that, the proxy only work for this program. Proxy will never work automatically with all programs in the system. But with VPN, you run the VPN inside the system, and all programs work with it.
2. You can transfer any kind of data through VPN. With proxy, only TCP can be delivered. (actually, in some version of shadowsocks, UDP also works)
For example, NTP is a famous protocol used to synchronous time between servers. Unfortunately, it's based on UDP, so NTP can't go through shadowsocks. So does the DNS. With VPN, it will goes alright.
Most of time, We access internet by browser. Shadowsocks can handle those situation very well. So most of time, You don't have to notice the different between them.
Shadowsocks ( You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. ) is an open source socks5 proxy which ,according to their official site, is designed to protect your internet traffic. in English, it will encrypt the traffic between you and the servers, so the ISP can not spy on you. once the ISP do not know what are you doing, they will not block the traffic, so you can bypass the restrictions by the ISP.
The main difference compare to VPN is Shadowsocks is not global, which means not all your traffic will go through the servers. VPN is global, once you connect to VPN servers, all your traffic will go through the servers, the main benefits of Shadowsocks is you can choose which traffic will go through the server and which will not. for example , i am in China, i want to watch China-only movies on youku dot com and meanwhile i want to use twitter, if i use VPN, i have to connect to a VPN server that is not in China, and once i connected, i can not watch videos on youku dot com or the speed is horrible . if i use Shadowsocks, the problem resolved, because the youku dot com traffic will use the local network which is not go through the servers and the twitter traffic will go through the server.
Shadowsocks is becoming more and more popular in China these days, however most of the Chinese build the proxy server themselves , there are a few China based teams provide Shadowsocks service, i didn't see many service provider outside China, the "openweb" model of Astrill looks like socks5 proxy but i don't know which technology they use.
You can also review my website You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.com for more information on VPNs.
1. To use a proxy, you had to let program know there is a proxy. But you don't have to config programs to use VPN.
For example. When you use shadowsocks, you should config your browser (like firefox) to use proxy. After that, the proxy only work for this program. Proxy will never work automatically with all programs in the system. But with VPN, you run the VPN inside the system, and all programs work with it.
2. You can transfer any kind of data through VPN. With proxy, only TCP can be delivered. (actually, in some version of shadowsocks, UDP also works)
For example, NTP is a famous protocol used to synchronous time between servers. Unfortunately, it's based on UDP, so NTP can't go through shadowsocks. So does the DNS. With VPN, it will goes alright.
Most of time, We access internet by browser. Shadowsocks can handle those situation very well. So most of time, You don't have to notice the different between them.
Shadowsocks ( You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now. ) is an open source socks5 proxy which ,according to their official site, is designed to protect your internet traffic. in English, it will encrypt the traffic between you and the servers, so the ISP can not spy on you. once the ISP do not know what are you doing, they will not block the traffic, so you can bypass the restrictions by the ISP.
The main difference compare to VPN is Shadowsocks is not global, which means not all your traffic will go through the servers. VPN is global, once you connect to VPN servers, all your traffic will go through the servers, the main benefits of Shadowsocks is you can choose which traffic will go through the server and which will not. for example , i am in China, i want to watch China-only movies on youku dot com and meanwhile i want to use twitter, if i use VPN, i have to connect to a VPN server that is not in China, and once i connected, i can not watch videos on youku dot com or the speed is horrible . if i use Shadowsocks, the problem resolved, because the youku dot com traffic will use the local network which is not go through the servers and the twitter traffic will go through the server.
Shadowsocks is becoming more and more popular in China these days, however most of the Chinese build the proxy server themselves , there are a few China based teams provide Shadowsocks service, i didn't see many service provider outside China, the "openweb" model of Astrill looks like socks5 proxy but i don't know which technology they use.
You can also review my website You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.com for more information on VPNs.
