### 3.10 Parent proxies

Polipo will usually fetch instances directly from source servers as this configuration minimises latency. In some cases, however, it may be useful to have Polipo fetch instances from a parent proxy.

Polipo can use two protocols to speak to a parent proxy: HTTP and SOCKS. When configured to use both HTTP and SOCKS proxying, Polipo will contact an HTTP proxy over SOCKS — in other words, SOCKS is considered as being at a lower (sub)layer than HTTP.