Understanding how to set up a proxy server is important if you ever want to become a power user. The word “proxy” means “substitute” or anything that serves as an agent, an enabler. When it comes to the internet, this means using a program that acts like another or otherwise substitutes for it. In computer networks, a proxy server is a server,which acts as a mediator for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. The requester is known as the client, and has to go through the proxy in order to get anything. What the proxy does is screen all requests against its set of filters, rules by which it can deny requests. Perhaps the most common such rule is banning access by clients on certain IP addresses.

To properly set up a proxy server, a wide variety of choices exist out there. You might start by checking out one of the most popular proxys on the market, a piece of software called 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. WinProxy acts just like any other server, dealing with security issues and all the various protocols online – except when it needs to serve as a substitute, a proxy.

The WinProxy Server is easy to install and configure. There’s really no better way to set up a proxy server. First off, TCP/IP needs to be set up on everything that will be handled by WinProxy. When all that’s been done, you can go on to WinProxy itself. You can purchase this the traditional way in a store or through a simple download. When you begin the installation, you get the option to run the Install Wizard. Be sure to have your product key handy, as that’s going to be the very first input required of you. From there the programs automated setup routine will determine your internet connection type for you. Under certain rare circumstances you may have to denote such information yourself. The next step will depend entirely on you, as it involves user access information like ID and password. Just leave everything else to the program to handle. 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. The external address is the IP address,which will be displayed to a user from another network,when his system interacts with any device from your network. 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.