The greatest development in
recent times has been the growth of the Internet. It joins us with people all over the world. It
allows us to view information that we would otherwise be unavailable to us. Using it is probably easier than "easy
as pie". And one of the things that helps us access the Internet, is the
proxy server.
A proxy server is something like an go-between between the computer you are using and the server that
you are trying to access. This concept becomes easier to understand once you visualize how it works. Suppose there is a
website that is accessed time after time
from a particular computer. This site gets saved in the cache of the proxy
server. Thereafter, if somebody tries visiting
that site, the page is pulled up from this cache.
The advantage of this style of functioning is that the
process quickens significantly. This is
because the proxy server is not required to make
contact with the real server of that website to view it. The site has
already been placed in the proxy server's cache.
Web proxies are proxy servers that limit their job to the online world. Sometimes web proxies are
used to intercede websites that are
provocative or offensive. They also serve another, perhaps more important,
function of blocking viruses that may be
present on the webpages that are currently being
looked through. In fact, a number of organizations make use of proxy
servers to perform these very functions. A company could even intercede its employees from viewing a
particular website by making use of a proxy server. Notably, the user is generally ignorant that any work is being done by
the proxy server.
There are many other kinds of proxy servers that are found on the web. These include transparent
proxies, split proxies and reverse proxies. Open proxies are proxy servers that
are the haunts of spammers and Internet
Relay Chat users.
There is also something called an anonymous proxy server. Servers like this provide anonymity, and hence,
privacy, to the user. It does this by hiding the IP address of the user. As a
result, the number of junk mails and spam that one would otherwise get a profusion of are reduced by a great extent. It is good to use an anonymous proxy
server because it keeps you protected from hackers.
A lot more information about proxy
servers is available on the net
. But the next time
you are able to quickly access your favorite webpage, make sure you silently thank your good old proxy server!
The author Ajeet Khurana recommends Squid Myspace Proxy, Web Messenger, and Unlock Myspace.