Can anyone explain proxies for me? I'm not totally stupid but the computer jargon is still a little Greek to me. Maybe there is a thread already started somewhere, maybe a site?

I want to surf anonymously.

A proxy is an intermediary btw you and the site you send a request to. It receives your messages and forwards them to the website and then gets the sites messages and forwards them to you. It is like a broker. Buyer and seller work through the broker, without the need to ever communicate directly with each other.

A proxy may or may not anonymise you. Some proxies will add a "X-Forwarded-For" header to provide transparency.

Google will find you any number of proxies.

http://www.publicproxyservers.com
http://www.multiproxy.org
http://www.stayinvisible.com

Google (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=proxy+anonymous&meta=)