Proxy chaining

The idea is that the first hop knows you and not the site, and the last hop knows the site and not you. The price is a second bill, a second thing to break, and every hop added to every page you open.

Proxy chaining is sending traffic through two or more proxies in a row, so that no single one of them sees both ends.

How a chain is meant to work

Your browser connects to the first proxy, which connects to the second, and only the last one reaches the site. The site sees the address of the last hop and nothing before it.

For that to be worth anything the hops have to be run by people who do not talk to each other. Two addresses bought from the same seller sit behind the same records.

What a chain costs

Delay adds up
Every hop is a full trip out and back. Two hops means waiting twice before the first byte arrives, on every request a page makes.
Two things can break
A chain is alive only while every hop is alive, and a dead middle hop looks exactly like a dead site.
The fault is harder to find
When pages stop loading, nothing tells you which hop stopped. You end up testing them one by one anyway.

One exit per profile

A profile here goes out through one address. There is no field for a second hop and nothing in the app stacks two addresses behind one window.

Four kinds of connection are accepted for that one address, and an unknown kind is refused rather than quietly downgraded to no proxy at all.

A tunnel is not a second exit

An entry for your own server raises a tunnel next to the browser and hands the window a plain local address to use. The road is your machine, then that server, then the site.

The small bridge that carries a proxy password lives on your own machine as well. Neither of them is a hop, and calling either one a chain would be a sales word rather than a fact.

Your own server settings stay out

A tunnel is raised without the personal connection settings kept on your machine. Those files often carry a jump host, and reading them would let an exit move somewhere you never typed.

So the far end of a tunnel is the server you named and nothing else. That is one hop by design rather than by omission.

What this does not do

The app does not chain proxies. One profile leaves through one address, and there is no place to add a second hop behind it.
A tunnel to your own server is one hop rather than a chain. It gives the window a local address to talk to, and the exit is that server.
The bridge that carries a password is not an exit. It lives on your machine and takes the connection no further than the address you set.
A jump written in your own connection settings is not picked up. The tunnel is raised without those files on purpose, so an exit cannot move without you.

Check it

One address, one rule, one tunnel, each in a file you can open.

One rule per profile, built where a launch happens: apps/desktop/src/main/main.js · apps/desktop/test/proxy-covers-https.js
The tunnel is raised without your personal connection files: apps/desktop/src/lib/sshTunnel.js
A build that could let the exit move fails the stand: apps/desktop/test/выход-по-ssh.js
The bridge speaks to one proxy and goes no further: apps/desktop/src/lib/proxyAuthBridge.js · apps/desktop/test/proxy-auth-bridge.js

Questions

Can I put two proxies behind one profile?: No. A profile takes one address, of one of four kinds, and the launch builds a single rule from it.
Does a chain make me harder to recognise?: It changes who can see what along the way. The site still reads one exit address, and everything it reads inside the page is untouched by the number of hops.
Is a VPN plus a proxy a chain?: In effect it is two hops, and the VPN half is outside the app. A profile still leaves through the one address you gave it, carried over whatever your machine is using.
Is an exit through my own server two hops?: No. A tunnel is raised beside the browser and the window is handed a local address, which means the road is your machine, that server, then the site.
Why will the tunnel not use my jump host?: Because the tunnel ignores your personal connection files, and a jump written there could move the exit silently. The far end is the server you typed.

Next to this

Give one profile one honest exit

Set an address, test it on the road a launch takes, and open the window knowing where it comes out.

Download ARMANOS Proxies