proxy1.princeton.me still loads, and that is the confusing part. What answers today is a holding page, not the proxy. The last working version the archive kept is from September 2013.
What it was
The Internet Archive's first working copy of proxy1.princeton.me is from September 2013 and it holds 4 days of captures in total.
The page called itself "Web Proxy fast Proxy best proxy access unblocked sites". Underneath it was PHProxy, the same free script the rest of the directory ran.
Web Proxy fast Proxy best proxy access unblocked sites Welcome Get access to social sites We hide your IP address so you can visit just about any website you want to without leaving a trace.
That is the site's own description, from the capture of 27 September 2013.
It was listed on workingproxysites.com, a directory of free web proxies, 13 years ago, and that listing counted 330 clicks through to it.
When it stopped
The last capture that shows the proxy itself is from 27 September 2013 and the archive kept visiting until 28 September 2015.
What the name does today
We checked proxy1.princeton.me on 10 September 2026 from our own server in Germany. It answers with parked.
What to use instead
Use a list somebody keeps checking rather than a name that used to work. Our free proxy list is re-verified every few minutes, and an address that stops answering leaves it instead of sitting there for years. If you already have an address, the proxy checker will tell you whether it still relays anything.
The limits of free are the same everywhere, ours included: the addresses are shared, so the sites that care have seen them before, and there is no session to hold, so logins break part way through.
What this page cannot tell you
Why it stopped is not in the record. A dead name and an archive that runs out show that something ended, not the reason for it, and we will not put a reason in print that the record does not carry.
Our status check is one day from one vantage point, and a site that refuses requests from data centres would look the same as one that is switched off. We will check this page again by 1 January 2027.
Sources
- Internet Archive, capture index for proxy1.princeton.me, first capture 27 September 2013, most recent capture 28 September 2015. Read 2026-09-10.
- Internet Archive, capture of proxy1.princeton.me dated 27 September 2013, quoted above. Read 2026-09-10.
- Our own status check of proxy1.princeton.me and of all 8,948 sites listed on the same directory, 10 September 2026.
