Tuesday 27 September 2011

What is Proxy?

Many people have heard of the word proxy and for most of them, this is just a common technical word. I can explain you what proxy is. And why it is used to access the sites which are restricted by the network administrator. 

What is proxy?

A proxy is a site that can provide Internet users the access to sites that are blocked by filters, or restrictions set by Internet and network administrators. It uses masking to avoid filters.

This kind of restrictions are generally at schools, colleges or offices.


Proxy has ability to temporarily modify your IP address and make you anonymous when you access blocked sites.

One common application of proxy is a caching web proxy. This allows a cache or storage of web pages and files available on remote servers. This allows local client workstations to quickly access these frequently used pages. With a caching proxy, the URL that is accessed is searched in the local cache. If it is there, the document is displayed immediately. Otherwise, it gets fetched from the server and returns it to the requesting client and saves a copy of the page in the cache.

How does it work?

A proxy operates in the same manner of accessing the Internet as when a web browser is used. It allows the user to enter the web address and be linked to the specific site in the browser window.

Where the window maintains a code that is part of the proxy site address. It does not reflect the actual website that the user is accessing. And the information accessed and stored in the temporary Internet files will be related to the proxy site and not to the restricted site.

A proxy site allows anonymous web surfing which gives the advantage of not being tracked about your online activities. With anonymous surfing, no one would know who you are, your location and what particular sites you are visiting.

Types of proxies.

  • Open Proxies.
    Open Proxy



  • An open proxy is a forwarding proxy server that is accessible by any Internet user.
  • Forward Proxy.
    Forward Proxy


  • Forward proxies are proxies where the client server names the target server to connect to. Forward proxies are able to retrieve from a wide range of sources (in most cases anywhere on the Internet).

  • Reverse Proxy.
    Reverse Proxy

  • A reverse proxy is a proxy server that appears to clients to be an ordinary server.

The good thing about proxy sites is that the IP address of the user is not recorded. This allows the anonymity and privacy of the user. It can even allow you to eliminate images and advertisements.

Proxy Scripts

There are mainly two types of proxy scripts. PHProxy and CGIProxy
  • PHProxy.

    PHProxy or sometimes known as PHP proxy is a site that allows free and unchallenged access to social networking sites without a user name. This kind of proxy also allows access to government and corporate sites. Although PHProxy is useful for those who have security concerns with the different sites, it is most often taken advantage of by hackers or those who were denied access in their previous access attempts.


  • CGIProxy.

    CGI means common gateway interface and this kind of proxy is installed on web servers using different protocols like HTTP, SSL and FTP. With this proxy, you will be able to access any resource from its server. It is very useful for anonymous proxies, virtual private network and for personal uses. It modifies links to point to the proxy and these include images, requests or any other access operation. It can also filter unwanted advertisements.


A proxy is needed when your school or your employer has strict and unreasonable Internet access policies.

A proxy is needed to conduct your business without intrusion by anybody.

It is very useful when you are out of the country and you need to access content that is restricted only to your country.

You simply need a proxy to hide from advertisers who are interested to know where you are located and what kinds of products you are buying.

There are countries that block their citizens from getting outside information from the Internet, the use of proxies can allow them to get in touch with the world and know what is going on.


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