What Is A Proxy Server?

A proxy server is a dedicated software or server that acts as a bridge between the user computer and the rest of the internet.

What Is A Proxy Server

The internet surrounds the lives of people in this modern world. Millions of people use the internet for different purposes, but only a few people know how it works.

There are a lot of things that collectively make it perfect for getting access to information or various other services.

A proxy server is one of them. Many people hear about it and use it for different purposes but even don’t know the process of working. Usually, a different type of information is available over the internet.

But sometimes some information is restricted for a particular group of people based on the geographical location, age group or due to any other reason. Therefore, people use a proxy server to hide their identity and getting access to particular information.

Contents:

What Is A Proxy Server?

A proxy server is a dedicated software or server that acts as a bridge between the user computer and the rest of the internet. Usually, proxy server installs on the same computer or any other computer and accessible through the internet.

A proxy server provides different levels of security, functionality, and privacy, depending on the purpose of use and requirements.

By using the proxy server, the user sends a request to a proxy server for the content of a particular website. In return, the proxy server collects data and passes it to you.

Why Use A Proxy Server

However, there are various reasons for the use of the proxy server, but in the below section, we will discuss a few of them.

For Placing a Cap Over Internet Usage

It is the most common use of proxy servers that is mostly practiced in homes and offices. It helps the parents to keep an eye over the activities by placing a cap up, putting a usage limit, and restricting the specific type of content.

In organizations, most entrepreneurs don’t like that their employees use the internet during office hours. Therefore it is useful to prevent excess usage for employees and instead allow limited usage for particular sites. It also helps to make a log for internet usage by employees.

Firewalls

Professionals use proxy servers as a security fence around their network. A proxy server helps to create a firewall that acts as a barrier and protects the system from unwanted visitors.

These visitors could be in the form of malware or other threats. A firewall acts as an anti-hacking or anti-malware software.

Proxy servers are the best way to create a trusted security network. It allows the network administrators to put configurations to set up the system to allow or deny access to website content. Proxy servers complete the process of blocking before the traffic approach the content.

Moreover, mostly on shared networks, hackers can get access to information easily. By creating a firewall at a local network prevent the hacker’s attacks. As well as it is difficult for them to find a particular device or router for which they are looking.

Bandwidth Savings

The use of proxy servers is increasing day by day. Along with the above mention benefits, it is an excellent way to reduce the cost of bandwidth usage.

A proxy server stores the temporary cache of the website. It provides access to content upon the next visit by any user of the proxy server. But the proxy server ensures that it has the latest copy of the website and loads again in case there is any change over it.

It not only helps to save the cost but also provides information with extraordinary speed to save the time of people or employees. Even there are thousands of users at the same time, it will provide prompt access to content.

Improved Privacy

Sometimes people, especially professionals and organizations, don’t want to show their identity while surfing over the internet.

It allows the users to search or visit particular websites anonymously by hiding the IP Address and any other information. It is difficult for the sites to find the right person that is present on the website until unless they have a much powerful security system.

Therefore, it is more secure to keep your information private.

How Many Types Of Proxy Servers Are Available?

Different types of proxy servers are available over the internet. But we mention the most popular types as under:

Reverse Proxy

This type of proxy server is used to redirect the request made by clients for different websites located over different web servers. A reverse proxy is responsible for redirecting the request to the right server.

Web Proxy Server

It is used to forward the HTTP requests and provides URLs only instead of the complete path.

Anonymous Proxy

This type of proxy helps to hide the IP Address of users instead provides access to the content of a particular website by using a random IP Address. These types of proxies are detectable up to a certain level, depending on the proxy server you are using.

Transparent Proxy

This type of proxy server is usually used to cache the websites, and it is not capable of hiding the identity or IP Address of the user in any case. It is also useful to prevent hacker’s attacks on the network.

DNS Proxy

This type of proxy server is used to receive and forward the request to the domain server in the form of DNS only.

What Is The Benefit Of Proxy Server While Web Scraping?

Website owners don’t like it if someone tries to steal their data through web scraping. They detect and block IP Addresses in case anyone attempts to scrape on their website. Therefore, the use of the proxy server is necessary for web scraping.

It is not only beneficial to hide the IP Address but also helps to use random IP Addresses for getting access to content. Due to the use of web servers from different geographical locations, it is difficult for website owners to detect the web scraping process.

Conclusion

A proxy server is perfect to increase security as well as the privacy of users. Besides, it also provides a lot of benefits that we discuss in the above article. Hopefully, you get a lot of benefits from it.