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Learning to set up a proxy server is important if you ever want to become a power user. In simple terms, proxy usually means acting as a substitute or an agent. In case of telecommunication, it is used for a device or program empowered to act for another. In computing a proxy server is simply an informational middleman, if you will; it handles exchanges between the requester and the ultimate server. A client connects to the proxy server and requests some service, like web page or access to a file. What the proxy does is screen all requests against its set of filters, rules by which it can deny requests. The most common example of filtering is by IP address or protocol.

When you want to set up a proxy server, you should research all available options carefully. To start off, let’s take a look at something by the name of WinProxy. The main reason for its popularity is that no software needs to be installed on the client systems. WinProxy is a transparent proxy server, which means that it also provides NAT (Network Address Translation). This ensures that the client system is unaware of the proxy server’s existence. Apart from caching and the usual security features like filtering, WinProxy supports important protocols like HTTP, FTP, Telnet, Secure Sockets and DNS.

The WinProxy Server is easy to install and configure. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better alternative to set up a proxy server. Before you begin setting up WinProxy, install the TCP/IP protocol on all systems connected to the network. Then, install WinProxy on the system, which you want to act as the proxy server. The software can be bought from stores and also downloaded. Newbies should use the handy installation wizard for automatic installation. Like most such wizards, you’ll be prompted for your produce license serial number right away. The next two screens gathers information about the type of Internet connection that will be used- dial-up or broadband. Under certain rare circumstances you may have to denote such information yourself. Then comes the login info – namely, username and password. WinProxy then configures the internal and external IP addresses for the network. Now perhaps the best thing of all is how it will make an internal LAN address into an anonymous IP address. What your ISP assigned for your modem or router winds up being the external address. This external address is what someone else will see when his system requests something from yours. WinProxy will then prompt the you to disconnect from the Internet,if you are already connected.In the final step, WinProxy verifies all the steps and ensures that all operations have been performed properly.