{"id":8073,"date":"2019-03-26T10:59:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-26T10:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rax-stg-wp-aws.com\/blogs\/web-proxy-server-and-deployment\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T19:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:29:15","slug":"web-proxy-server-and-deployment","status":"publish","type":"blogs","link":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/blogs\/web-proxy-server-and-deployment\/","title":{"rendered":"Web proxy server and deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A proxy server is a computer system that sits between the client that requests&nbsp;a web document and the target server (another computer system) that serves&nbsp;the document. In its simplest form, a proxy server facilitates communication&nbsp;between the client and the target server without modifying requests or replies.<\/p>\n<p>When you initiate a request for a resource from the target server, the proxy&nbsp;server hijacks the connection, represents itself as a client to the target&nbsp;server, and requests the resource on your behalf. If a reply is received, the&nbsp;proxy server returns it, establishing communication with the target server.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture1_7.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/https:\/\/mn.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B8_%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%80\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is a proxy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A proxy represents someone else or has the authority to act on behalf of another.<\/p>\n<p>Proxy servers have the following characteristics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Act as an intermediary for requests sent by a client that wants resources&nbsp;from other servers in the computer network.<\/li>\n<li>Can be any computer system or an application.<\/li>\n<li>Are created when you install and run proxy software on a computer.<\/li>\n<li>Enable you to cache your web content and return it quickly on subsequent&nbsp;requests, which helps system administrators, who often struggle with delays&nbsp;and bandwidth usage issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nProxy servers have the following advantages:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Obscure client IP addresses by using network address translation&nbsp; (NAT) to remap the private IP address to another IP address, which hides&nbsp;the client IP address.<\/li>\n<li>Block malicious traffic by controlling inbound and outbound traffic.<\/li>\n<li>Block sites, such as unauthorized sites, adult sites, and so on.<\/li>\n<li>Log activity by maintaining log records of traffic.<\/li>\n<li>Improve performance by caching the uniform resource locators (URLs). The&nbsp;proxy server reuses the cached URL when a client sends the data to the same&nbsp;URL that they used previously.<\/li>\n<li>Reduce bandwidth usage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Proxy server architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following image shows basic web proxy architecture:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture2_6.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 2\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\nAs shown in the preceding image, you can install a web proxy server between the&nbsp;switch and the router. The following web proxy servers are a few of the ones&nbsp;that are available :&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FreeProxy<\/li>\n<li>Wingate&amp;reg;<\/li>\n<li>UltraSurf<\/li>\n<li>Apache&amp;reg; HttpServer<\/li>\n<li>Freegaree<\/li>\n<li>Anonymizer&amp;reg;<\/li>\n<li>Provoxy<\/li>\n<li>HAProxy&amp;reg;<\/li>\n<li>SquidProxy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Proxy server installation prerequisites&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before you install web proxy server software, ensure that the server has two&nbsp;network interface cards (NICs). One NIC should connect to an internal switch,&nbsp;and the other NIC should connect to the router that connects to the Internet.<\/p>\n<p>You should be prepared to configure the server with an IP address, a gateway,&nbsp;and a Domain Name Server (DNS).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Download, install, and deploy a Wingate proxy server<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Use the following steps to download, install, and deploy a Wingate proxy server:<\/p>\n<p>1. Download the <a href=\"www.wingate.com\">Wingate software&nbsp;<\/a>and install it.<\/p>\n<p>2. Enter the 30-day trial license or your purchased license when prompted as<br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp;shown in the following image:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture3_2.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 3 \" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiamart.com\/proddetail\/linux-web-proxy-server-software-6220500388.html\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe following image shows the network after deployment. &nbsp;The left side shows&nbsp;the internal architecture, and the right side shows the external architecture.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture4_2.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 4\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/iis\/extensions\/configuring-application-request-routing-arr\/creating-a-forward-proxy-using-application-request-routing\"><em>Image Source<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&nbsp;Block a site<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following steps demonstrate how to block a social media site from your&nbsp;network by using a proxy server:<\/p>\n<p>1. Start Wingate. The following window with a left-side navigation pane displays:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture5_3.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 5\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; Select <strong>Wingate&gt;Web Access Control&gt;Access Rule<\/strong>&nbsp;and click <strong>Add rule<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; To create an access rule, fill in the rule name and the site to block&nbsp;(such as XYZ.com), and click <strong>Add<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; To map to the social media category, navigate to <strong>Classifiers<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp; &nbsp; enter <strong>www.xyz.com<\/strong>&nbsp;in the empty dialog box, and click <strong>OK&nbsp;<\/strong>as shown in the following image:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture6_1.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 6\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Enable the time interval to block a website as shown in the following image<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture7_1.png\" alt=\"proxy server image 7\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Click <strong>Finish<\/strong>&nbsp;to block the site URL. When users try to access the site, they see a <strong>Blocked<\/strong>&nbsp;message.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Proxy servers on large networks help to improve reliability by blocking malicious&nbsp;data, and they enable you to cache your web content and return it quickly on&nbsp;subsequent requests.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_article_images\/26595-body-Picture8_1.png\" alt=\"proxy server pic 8\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Web proxy server and deployment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8075,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","nid":"26595","content_type":"blog","created_by":"10130","authored_on":"2024-02-09T11:59:03+00:00","field_article_industries":"","tag_category":"Technical","field_blog_author_text":"by Rackspace Technology Staff","seo_description":"Explore the role of a web proxy server in facilitating secure communication between clients and servers. Ensure efficient data transmission.\r\n","field_featured_image":"","insights_image":"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/blog_technical_images\/26595-insights_image-general-processes-technical-blog-2-insights.jpg","field_partners":"","rxt_platforms":"Applications","product":"","publisheddate":"2019-03-26T10:59:03","rxt_solutions":"Multicloud","opengraph_tag":"","x_tag":"","teaser_flag":"Technical Blog","seo_titile":"Web Proxy Server Deployment for Enhanced Security | Rackspace Technology","field_topics":"","field_slug":"web-proxy-server-and-deployment","footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-8073","blogs","type-blogs","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-technical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/8073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blogs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8073"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/8073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9866,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blogs\/8073\/revisions\/9866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rackspace.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}