Proxies - Help

[netstrider]

I'm not quite sure whether this is in the correct thread. Anyway, what exactly is proxies? From my understanding it's a local server (not necesseraly local) which has some of the most common software on it for download. I may be waaaay off track here. And when anyone tries downloading something such as Firefox for example via the proxy it might transfer at enormous speeds. Is this true and where can I get hold of these ? Also, how do they work exactly Please help...

 

[quovadis]

Primarily a proxy server is basically an intermediary server which sits locally on your ISPs network.

What essentially happens in the case of transparent proxying (which most ISPs implement) is that when you open a webpage or download a file the proxy server caches/keeps a copy of the file so that it if any other user or you again request the file it can be delivered to you locally as opposed to using precious international bandwidth or downloading the file again from the original server. The benefit of a proxy server is that instead of commonly accessed or popular files being downloaded each time from the remote server they are readily available locally which boosts download time as the ISP usually has more available bandwidth on their own network then on remote networks via the internet.

The ISPs usually implement certain rules in terms of what kind of files and sizes can be cached but they usually include images and small popular applications such as Adobe Reader etc.

In essence a proxy server is the same as the cache on your internet browser however serves every user on the ISP.

I wouldn't recommend installing your own proxy server unless you have a couple of users using a single internet connection.

Hope this helps.

 

[netstrider]

Ok this makes perfect sense, but I don't think my ISP has this (cybersmart) because I've been downloading several small apps...which are all international lol...Is there any way I can for example use a SAIX proxy or something. Must be free though

 

[plenty]

Netstrider, you dont need a proxy, it wont speed up your downloads.
You can only go as fast as your line, and no more.

If you use firefox i suggest you use http://www.downthemall.net and enable multi-part downloads, you will notice amazing speeds when you have about 4 threads going.

Re: your proxy question... everyone in the country is forced through proxies if you use ADSL, unless you are unshaped.

Should you require more information you can check out my rather large posting yesterday.

Caching

I hope this helps

- plenty

Ok this makes perfect sense, but I don't think my ISP has this (cybersmart) because I've been downloading several small apps...which are all international lol...Is there any way I can for example use a SAIX proxy or something. Must be free though

 

[netstrider]

Right ok thanks...was just wondering.

 

[Paul_S]

Ok this makes perfect sense, but I don't think my ISP has this (cybersmart) because I've been downloading several small apps...which are all international lol...Is there any way I can for example use a SAIX proxy or something. Must be free though

Cybersmart use the SAIX network which means you go through the SAIX transparent proxy automatically.

If you want to check go to a "what is my IP" site that checks for a proxy server.
Example : http://www.ioerror.us/ip/
You'll see that your IP address and the proxy IP address listed on that page are different.