Online Computer Terms Dictionary - P

proxy ARP

The technique in which one host, usually a router, answers Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests intended for another machine. By "faking" its identity, the router accepts responsibility for routing packets to the "real" destination. Proxy ARP allows a site to use a single IP address with two physical networks. Subnetting would normally be a better solution.

proxy gateway

<networking> A computer and associated software which will pass on a request for a URL from a World-Wide Web browser such as Mosaic to an outside server and return the results. This provides clients that are sealed off from the Internet a trusted agent that can access the Internet on their behalf. Once the client is properly configured, its user should not be aware of the proxy gateway.

A proxy gateway often runs on a firewall machine. Its main purpose is to act as a barrier to the threat of crackers. It may also be used to hide the IP addresses of the computers inside the firewall from the Internet if they do not use official registered network numbers.

Browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape can be configured to use a different proxy or no proxy for each URL access method (or "scheme") - FTP, Gopher, WAIS, news, and HTTP.

Mosaic and proxy gateways.

Compare proxy server.

(1997-06-08)

Proxy Server

<software, security> Microsoft's proxy server and proxy gateway, designed to provide extensible firewall and network security. Proxy Server is part of BackOffice.

(1999-09-17)

proxy server

<programming, World-Wide Web> A process providing a cache of items available on other servers which are presumably slower or more expensive to access.

This term is used particularly for a World-Wide Web server which accepts URLs with a special prefix. When it receives a request for such a URL, it strips off the prefix and looks for the resulting URL in its local cache. If found, it returns the document immediately, otherwise it fetches it from the remote server, saves a copy in the cache and returns it to the requester. The cache will usually have an expiry algorithm which flushes documents according to their age, size, and access history.

Compare proxy gateway.

(1995-02-14)