A Story of Proxy

One day Mickey was enjoying his evening walk in the Garden when he saw Minnie

Mickey – Hi Minnie!

Minnie – Ah! Hi Mickey. How are you?

Mickey – I am good, it’s good to see you here. I do not generally see you in the Garden

Minnie – Yeah, actually I have been working since morning, so came here to relax

Mickey – Great, what are you working at?

Minnie – I am preparing a talk to give to the class tomorrow on PROXY

Mickey – Interesting!

Minnie – Do you know about it?

Mickey – Yes Ma’am

Minnie – Oh wow! I have been struggling with this since morning

Mickey – Do not worry, I know you understand better with stories

Minnie – So here we go

Mickey – Yeah, first let us sit somewhere quieter

Minnie – Sure let’s go

Mickey & Minnie went to a quiet place

Mickey – Okay Minnie, do you remember last year I did not attend the Linux lecture and you marked my fake attendance

Minnie – Yes, we just escaped that (laughing)

Mickey – Yeah and generally we say that you marked proxy for me

Minnie – Yeah

Mickey – So proxy in very simple words is to act on behalf of another person

Minnie – I know, last year we marked several proxies for each other (laughing)

Mickey – Yes, and that is exactly what proxy or proxy server means in computers and networking as well

Minnie – Oh, wow

Mickey – Okay, now to tell you from scratch, let us understand how a server works

Minnie – Awesome

Mickey – When you open your browser and click on some link your browser (client) sends information (request) to the server and the server processes and sends the response and you see it on your screen

Minnie – Yes

Mickey – Now, how do you know which server to connect to

Minnie – I don’t know

Mickey – Yes, the user cannot take care of which server to connect, and monitor if the server goes down, etc.

Minnie – Yeah, and I never do it as a user on my browser. I just surf

Mickey – Yes, so as a user, you do not have to check which server is up, and also if you visit the same site again and the response is processed from a different server this time, you should not have to download the same content again

Minnie – Yes

Mickey – And if people know where is the response coming from, they can try to hack the server

Minnie – Wicked people!

Mickey – And also the other way round, the incoming content to your system can be spam

Minnie – Oh No

Mickey – Yes, and that is why it makes sense to have a gatekeeper between your system and the internet (or network)

Minnie – Yeah, that is so much required

Mickey – This is where the Proxy server comes into the picture

Minnie – Okay so I now know that Proxy server is some server that sits between my system and the internet or the servers from where the request is processed

Mickey – Correct, Now let’s understand more deeply

Minnie – Yeah!

Mickey – Every computer on the internet needs to have a unique IP (Internet Protocol) address. Think of this IP address as your computer’s street address. Just as the post office knows to deliver your mail to your street address, the internet knows how to send the correct data to the correct computer by the IP address

Minnie – I get this

Mickey – A proxy server is basically a computer on the internet with its own IP address that your computer knows. When you send a web request, your request goes to the proxy server first. The proxy server then makes your web request on your behalf, collects the response from the webserver, and forwards you the web page data so you can see the page in your browser

Minnie – Yes

Mickey – When the proxy server forwards your web requests, it can make changes to the data you send and still get you the information that you expect to see. A proxy server can change your IP address, so the webserver doesn’t know exactly where you are in the world. It can encrypt your data, so your data is unreadable in transit. And lastly, a proxy server can block access to certain web pages, based on IP address

Minnie – I now get very clearly what a proxy or proxy server is and what it does

Mickey – Great

Minnie – Can you also tell some more functions of the proxy server

Mickey – Sure Minnie, proxy servers can be used for

Security
Enables Privacy – keeps your IP secret
Acts as an additional firewall
Filters content (internet traffic)
Load balancing
Control internet usage (for children, employees, etc)
Improve speed (caching)
Get access to blocked resources