I'd be happy to help. Basically SOCKS works at a lower level than an HTTP proxy. Whereas an HTTP proxy will only enable TCP connections (it works with information in the HTTP header), SOCKS can support other protocols like UDP (usually . . . depends on the server). The important thing is that if you want to establish something like an SSH session through a proxy, an HTTP proxy will not work. Sockslist.net is a good source of SOCKS proxies. You can find plenty of lists with a quick search.
What that list means: Proxy:Port -- This is the IP of the proxy server and the number of the listening port. Typically this will be 80 or 8080. You'll use this info for the options in your web browser. Specify the given IP and the port number and your browser will send requests to the proxy server to be redirected. latency -- This is the average lag time associated with the server. When connecting to a proxy, you're packets will go through several more hops than if they followed a direct route. The lower the number, the faster the connection. type -- Indicates how the particular proxy modifies protocol headers. Transparent proxies, for example, are "transparent" to the user (they pretty much act like a router). Country -- Exactly what it sounds like. Certain countries are more notorious for setting up malicious servers than others, but, frankly, I wouldn't trust anyone. Asian and European-based proxies will tend to have much higher latency due to the large number of hops packets will have to take. Uptime -- The ratio of the server functioning to the life of the server (proxies come and go pretty quickly, usually). Low uptime ratio may indicate an overloaded server, so it may not function as expected. Last worked on -- Last time an admin has performed any tasks on the server. Could be when the proxy was actually set up. You asked about ports too. Ports are logical 'openings' on your computer. You're probably using only one network interface (an ethernet cable and network card, for instance), but ports are used to identify connections so multiple services can use the same connection (FTP, HTTP, etc probably use the same physical connection, a port number lets the computer know how to separate them so the right programs get the right data). HTTP proxies won't necessarily support SSL, so you'll need an HTTPS proxy to handle those connections. You can find lists of free proxies on either website I mentioned. Some are ad supported, but they're usually not overly intrusive. I hope that covered everything. Let me know if anything is still unclear.
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