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This is one of those Internet terms that shows up in unexpected places -- like when you're trying to download the latest Whassup?! parody from behind your corporate firewall. By definition, "proxy" refers to a person or agency who has authority to act for another. So, taken literally, does that mean a "proxy server" acts in place of another server? Let's check it out. A Yahoo! search led us to the Proxy Servers category. We browsed through
the sites in this category and found a highly technical collection of software products, but not the explanation we were looking for. After that, we decided to find an Internet glossary and look for a useful definition. At a technical dictionary called NetLingo we found a description of a proxy server. It's a computer program that acts as an intermediary between a web browser and a web server. To give users rapid access to popular web destinations, Internet Service Providers use proxy servers as "holding
bins" to store frequently requested pages, rather than going out and fetching them repeatedly from the Net. Whatis.com offered a similar definition. They explain that proxy servers are programs that mediate between a workstation user in a networked environment and the Internet beyond. They are associated with a "gateway," which separates the internal network from the outside; a "firewall," which screens all incoming traffic and protects the network from unwelcome intruders; and a "caching" program, which looks locally for previously downloaded web pages. If the requested page is not found, the proxy server goes out to the Net and retrieves it, almost invisibly, for the user. Apparently,
this is a safe, efficient way of handling inbound and outbound traffic on a network.
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