Proxy

What is a proxy?

Have you ever come across a problem like whenever you are trying to open a website it is getting blocked and the error message that is showing up is about some content filter which is not finding the contents of the website authentic and viewable?

This is when a proxy site comes into the picture. They allow you to go through the websites overcoming the blocks. Basically the proxy sites are the ones that ids meant for the convenience of the end users. The proxy servers can help you in various ways. They generally work on behalf of the particular allocated clients and also help the users.

Advantages of proxy

You must have heard about the firewalls which often come in between the end user and the source of connection. They filter the contents and then cater then to you. This is basically made to stop the hackers. The proxy server somewhat relates to the same purpose but they work on it in a slightly different way.

They follow the mechanism of storing and then forwarding. They terminate the source internet connection that is supposed to come to the users and creates a separate connection with the destination. The proxy servers are capable of serving a number of users at the same time.

Using a proxy server you can surf the internet without getting in touch with the internet connection directly. This is the reason you can maintain your privacy with the proxy servers. There are many big service providers like VSNL and AOL which employs the proxy servers to serve their customers who opt for the dial-up plans.

Types of proxy

There are various types of proxy servers. Some of the proxy services fall under the firewall services and some of them work independently. Generally there are three types of proxy servers- Generic proxy, Circuit proxy and SOCKS. The generic proxy always comes with the firewall packages and they provide you with a facility of having a local address even if you are in a remote destination.

Their service is often independent of the situations and applications. The circuit proxies can be considered as a particular type of generic proxy. But they are very helpful when you need too interact with multiple clients virtually and access the client’s connection.

The last one SOCKS was launched in the year of 1991. Though this server comes with the facility of various client libraries but there are certain demerits of this proxy.