A proxy server refers to a computer that provides a computer network service to enable clients to make network connections indirectly to other network service providers. For example, the client will link to the proxy server who then makes a request for a specific file, connection, or other available resource on another server. Essentially, the proxy gives the resource by either linking to a specified server or else by serving the resource from a cache. Sometimes, the proxy can modify the request of the client or the response from the server due to a variety of reasons.
What is a Web Proxy?
A typical proxy application is known as a caching Web proxy. This will provide a close cache of Web files and pages that are available on remote Web servers, which enables local network clients to readily access them in a more reliable and quicker manner.
Once it gets a request for a resource (identified through a URL), next the caching proxy seeks the URL inside its local area cache. It will immediately return the document if it locates it. If not, it will attempt to fetch it from a remote server and will then return it to the client while backing up a copy in cache. Normally, the cache utilizes an expiry algorithm in order to eliminate documents saved in the cache, based on their access history, size, and age.
Also, web proxies have the ability to filter out content of the Web pages being served. In fact, a few censorware applications that try to block offensive content from the Web are implemented as actual Web proxies while others attempt to reformat pages for a particular audience or purpose.
Improving the Overall Performance of a Proxy Server
The role of a caching proxy server is to speed up service requests by fetching content that’s saved from a former request. Caching proxies maintain local copies of regularly used resources, which significantly enables big organizations to greatly diminish their upstream bandwidth expenses and usage, while substantially enhancing their performance overall. Most large corporations and ISPs utilize a caching proxy. In fact, a caching proxy was the very first type of proxy server ever used. Web proxies are frequently used to store Web pages from a server. A poorly implemented caching proxy will inevitably cause issues, like the inability to employ user authentication.
A Web proxy that’s intended to mitigate certain link associated problems or degradations is called a PEP (Performance Enhancing Proxy). These kinds of proxies are often used to enhance TCP performance regarding high packet loss, greater round-trip times, or extremely asymmetric links that have very diverse download and upload rates overall. PEPs are also known for efficiently using the network, such as compressing data or merging TCP acknowledgements (ACKs).
Another important way a proxy server is used is to decrease the cost of hardware. We talked with Lime Proxies about this topic and they added, “A business can use several systems on the exact same network or under management of one server, which prohibits the chance of an individual connection to the Web for each system. If this happens, each system can be successfully connected to just one proxy server, whereby the proxy server is then connected to the primary server.”
Choosing a Proxy Server
The overall quality and type of proxy server you end up choosing will primarily depend on several factors, such as budget, risk tolerance level, and the perceived risk relative to resources beyond the proxy itself. Larger companies with literally hundreds of users or more will likely need a more solid, robust solution. They’ll require heavy-duty caching along with the need for greater granular filtering as well.
