from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
HTTP proxy server
web proxy
<World-Wide Web> A {proxy server} for {HTTP} requests.
Typically an HTTP proxy or "web proxy" accepts HTTP requests
containing {URLs} with a special prefix. The proxy removes
the prefix and looks for the resulting URL in its local
{cache} (if it is a caching proxy). If found, it returns the
document immediately, otherwise it fetches it from the remote
server, saves a copy in its cache and returns it to the
requester. The cache will usually have an expiry {algorithm}
which flushes documents according to their age, size and
access history.
The purpose is to reduce the amount of data flowing over the
proxy's Internet connection and to speed up clients' access to
frequently requested pages, e.g. at an {ISP} or on a large
company's {firewall}. The proxy may also reject requests
where the URL or content matches certain conditions.
The {Apache} HTTP server can be configured to act as a proxy
server. Another popular software proxy is {Squid}.
(2008-07-01)