Becoming more knowledgeable and savvy about the technical side of the Internet is useful even for the more casual user. The need to keep one self update with the developments within the industry is more pertinent now due to the speed at which technology is developing. It is for this reason that understanding some of the more basics concepts of the Internet is relevant and worth knowing about – even if its at its most basic level. This article will look at what a proxy server is all about and outline its basic functions below.
In terms of explaining what an actual proxy server is, it is an intermediate channel that is used to forward and direct traffic between computers on a particular network. Many assume that proxy servers are only there to serve anonymous and random Internet surfing, but this is not the case. They are used regularly for caching and web filtering. A caching proxy server is used to help speed up the downloading time of a web page. This is done by caching linked and related static data files such as HTML and images. In your own web browser, there will also be a cache but this works more personally, whereas a caching proxy is applicable to any user on that network by caching files and images that have already be requested, thus speeding up the web page uploading process. To explain this more simply, should a user land on a particular website such as www.nationalgeographic.com and then other user lands on that same website using the same computer or network some time later, the second user will have a quicker upload time due to the caching proxy being in place.
Web filtering proxy servers might be more familiar to some as these are what block unwanted or spam websites from appearing in your browser. They do however have a much wide function that may be less well known. A web filtering proxy server also serves to filter unwanted adverts and spam by blocking certain websites when requested by a user if they are either deemed as being a blocked site by the filtering proxy or contains words/phrases that that web filtering proxy is programmed to block.
In the greater scheme of things, all proxy servers have one fundamental purpose in common; to filter what your receive in your browser but just in different ways as outlined above. It is helpful to understand the function that any type of proxy server serves in encouraging a more user-friendly experience whilst browsing on the Internet so that you become a more knowledgeable Internet user.