Free proxies online usually only route http protocol stuff (aka just your web traffic ex:chrome,mozilla). There are proxies which work on the socks protocol which can handle just about every type of traffic that exists (ftp,torrent,etc.etc.) but it must be explicitly setup to route that type of traffic to the proxy. To be honest a solid paid vpn is your best bet. All of your traffic is encrypted and routed through your VPN which is what you want. IMO find a better vpn service. I used to use PIA and cannot remember a time when it dropped off, but I could enable a kill switch if I wanted.
For super combo wombo redudancy you could do paid VPN + proxy. That way all your traffic is routed through the VPN and you could explicitly route POE through the Proxy that way if it goes down you are still protected.