Proxies -
A proxy is a means of provinding a "you ask and i get and then give it to you service".
i.e. Somewhere there is a machine sitting there who's function it is to answer requests from your computer for data. Your computer asks the proxy server to get the data from a specific place, the proxy then does this, and then forward the data that you asked for back to you.
You get HTTP proxies - they answer requests for data on port 80. Typical Browser Stuff.
You get FTP proxies - they answer requests for data on port 21. File Downloads from FTP Servers.
You get SOCKS 3+4+5 proxies which provide a larger service range.
You get DNS proxies - they answer the name lookup queries (What is www.myadsl.co.za's Ip Address)
You get combinations of these and more...
Now - most proxy servers store the data that they just sent you for a while. If somebody else asks for the exact same data, the proxy does not bother fetching the data again, it just sends what it has stored to you. This is called cacheing (Cache Server), and there is a lot of rules on determining how to expire the saved data on the Cache Server.
Note : Anybody who uses ADSL and does not use a Proxy + Cacheing server is wasting their bandwidth, as each and every request is being handled by Teklom and they are adding up the bandwidth and smiling. Technically, Microsoft Internet Explorer cache's the pages in the Temporary Internet Files folder, but it still sends "Are my versions of these pages out of date ?" questions to Telkom.
So - what these "Beat the Cap" guys typically do is provide proxy servers that answer your computers request for data using their own Diginet/ISDN lines. If you need international email / browsing / ftp'ing to work when you are capped, then it works fine. If you want to play international games - forget it.
Now - there is another service called port forwarding - which is similar to proxying.
Your computer pretends that their server is the games server and communicates with their server as if it were the games server.
Their "port forwarding" server does the actual communication to the real games server and sends you it's reply's.
Now - that is what you need to beat the cap and play international online games (And a bloody good international line.).
Hope that huge speech helps.[:I]
