what is a proxy or a proxy server?
-Proxy servers act as
intermediaries between computing devices t provide security and to shield the
hosts on an internal network, it is important that we need to understand the
purposes and processes of this technology, in order to help protect our information,
systems, and networks. a proxy server is principally another computer which preforms as a focal
point through which internet requests are operated.
-By connecting through one
of these servers, your computer sends your requests to the server which then
processes your request and returns the Data. In this way, it serves as an
intermediary between your home machine and the rest of the computers on the
internet. Proxies are also used to filter web content, to go around
restrictions such as parental blocks, to screen downloads and uploads and to
provide anonymity when browsing the internet.
How the proxy server works:
- Proxies function as a sort of software
go-between, forwarding data between internal users and external hosts.
They work by focusing on the port each service uses, screening all traffic
into and out of each port, and deciding whether to block or allow traffic
based on rules set up by the proxy server administrator.
B. As mentioned before In a typical transaction, the proxy server intercepts a request from a computer on the internal network being
protected and passes it along to a destination computer on the Internet. This
might seem like a complex and time-consuming process, but it takes only a
matter of seconds for the following steps to occur:
- An internal host makes a request to access a Web site.
- The request goes to the proxy server, which examines the header and data of the packet against rules configured by the firewall administrator.
- The proxy server recreates the packet in its entirety, with a different source IP address.
- The proxy the server sends the packet to its destination; the packet appears to become from the proxy server, not the original end-user who made the request.
- The returned packet is sent to the proxy server, which inspects it again and compares it against its rule base.
- The returned packet is rebuilt by the proxy server and sent to the originating computer; when received, the packet appears to have come from the external host, not the proxy server.
Types of proxies
- Anonymous Proxy- Anonymous proxy servers veil
your information. When you send a request to the webpage, the webpage gets the IP
address of the proxy server that you're using instead of your own. The server has no way of accessing your IP address and communication between
you and the proxy server is encrypted;
- High Anonymity Proxy - This type of proxy the server does not identify itself as a proxy server and does not make the original IP address available. High
anonymity proxies include the REMOTE_ADDR header with the IP address of
the proxy server, which appears that the proxy server is the client.
- Transparent Proxy - An example of a transparent proxy would be a server that simply forwards your request to the resource that you want without dissembling any of your information. This may be used in the workplace, where the IP address of the request is revealed to the server being requested from.
- Reverse Proxy - A reverse proxy server is generally used to pass requests from the Internet, through a firewall to isolated, private networks. It is used to prevent Internet clients from having direct, unmonitored access to sensitive data residing on content servers on an isolated network, or intranet. If caching is enabled, a reverse proxy can also lessen network traffic by serving cached information rather than passing all requests to actual content servers.
the main purpose of proxy servers
-When considering a
proxy system to protect a network, first you must go over the purposes and uses
of a proxy
Concealing internal clients
- Perhaps the most important benefit of using a proxy server is its ability to conceal internal clients from external clients
who try to access the internal network. Rather than connecting directly to
internal hosts with IP addresses like 10.0.0.4, 10.0.0.5, and so on, external
clients see the network as appearing to be a single machine: the one that hosts
the proxy server software.
Blocking URLs
-In practice, blocking URLs is unreliable. The main reason is that URLs are typically blocked by proxy servers as full-text
URLs. The simple proxy server Net Proxy, for example, give you access to the
URLs of sites that you want to block from passing through the WWW proxy
gateway. However, if you have only entered the domain name of the site and the
end-users use the IP address that corresponds to the URL, they can still access
the site
Blocking and filtering content
-Proxy servers, like packet filters, can filter
out content based on regulations that contain a variety of settings, including time, IP address,
and the port number. Virtually all proxy server products capitalize on the ability
to scan the payload of a packet and provide some sort of content-filtering
system.
Email proxy
protection
-Proxy servers can be
used to support and protect other network services, including e-mail.
Improving performance
-Although proxy servers can slow down some
requests for information, they can also speed up access to documents that have
been requested continuously. For instance, they can be configured to store Web
pages in a disk cache.
Ensuring security
Log files, which maintain records of events such as login attempts and accesses to files might be tedious and time-consuming to review, but they can serve many different functions when it comes to ensuring the effectiveness of a firewall.
Redirecting URLs
-Some proxies can scan specific parts of the data part of an HTTP packet and redirect it to a specific location. The proxy
can be configured to recognize two types of content:
A-Files or directories requested by the client
B-The hostname with which the client wants to
communicate
Proxy VS VPN
A major difference that exists between proxies and VPN
is that proxy can process many more users at the same time, simply since they
do not have resources responsible for encrypting all the traffic that passes
through them.
When comparing these two items on general surfing, a
VPN is a much better option than a proxy. VPN helps to substantially improve
online anonymity, and they protect you against a variety of malicious.
One of the only reasons why we might recommend that
you choose to purchase a proxy over a VPN, mostly because of the price. Proxies
are generally much cheaper than any form of VPN, and therefore so many people
choose to purchase them. Even though they do have fewer benefits than a VPN,
proxies are still great options if you are unable to afford a VPN.
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