Broadband Tech > Security > Security > Proxy

Proxy

Uh... yeah... - Proxy server daemon. What do you want to do? They can filter, they can share connections, they can cache, they can secure. They can annonymize, they can balance loads. You can use a full blown www server daemon as a proxy, you can run a squid cache, you can run a loosely named "app level firewall."

The word "proxy" says it all... it sits in "proxy," in the place of, another machine. It "carries its proxy", or "speaks for it", just like the designated proxy does for shareholders at a directors' meeting...

examples of proxy servers, or apps that function as proxy servers:

-Proxomitron
-Squid cache
-ICS
-WinGate
-Jproxy
-Proxy+
-many cookie crunchers and popup stoppers
-a number of webservers are easily configurable to proxy connections
-some purported "firewalls" behave a lot like proxy servers...

Proxies are either local or remote. Technically, they're "local" if they run on the same machine they proxy for; they're remote if they run on a separate machine, whether at an ISP, out on the web, or in the basement on the same subnet.

Local proxies are almost always filters. Remote ones may also be caches or connection sharers, may have mail relay servers, may maintain a DNS cache, or even a full-featured Bind implementation... proxies can just pass the connections, or they can control the connections themselves... they can be great security devices, and they can be fantastic security holes... they can tunnel firewalls, launder IP's, relay spam... [pant, pant, pant... phew!]

uhh... better question is what do you want to do with one ? If it's define them, that's easy: it's a server daemon that handles connections for something else. If you want that defined in real detail, or want a comprehensive list, then we better get a few comfortable chairs and break out the espresso and the good cigars ... this is gonna be a LOOOONG NIGHT!

Check out »serverwatch.internet.com/ if you've never been there... by NO means comprehensive, but a fun website to browse, and a good link for anyone who has any servers to maintain...
--
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on. - Sir Winston Churchill

Excellent explanation!

I'm looking for a little anonymity on the internet due to work situation..

M$ Proxy 2.0
M$ ISA