A proxy server is a server that acts between users networks and the Internet for seeking resources from other servers. A proxy users connects to the proxy server through a browser initiating access request to some web page, or other resource, available from a different server. The web proxy server analyze and evaluates the request as per its filtering rules such as it may filter traffic by IP address or protocol. If the request gets validated, the proxy provides the resource by connecting to the relevant server and requesting the service on behalf of the user. A web proxy server may modify or adjust the users request or the server’s response, and it may even serve the request without contacting the specified server.

In this case, it ‘caches’ responses from the remote server, and returns consequent requests for the same content straight way. The purpose of a proxy server is to keep the machines unidentified for security reason and to expedite access to a resource by caching web pages from the web server.

A proxy server can be located in the user’s local computer or at diverse points between the user and the destination servers or the Internet. A reverse proxy is a proxy used as a front-end to accelerate and cache in-demand resources like the web pages. However while choosing a proxy server you should choose the proxy list only based on quality parameters of proxy servers.

Tags: Proxy server