< networking > A computer and associated software which will pass on a request for a URL from a World-Wide Web browser such as Mosaic to an outside server and return the results. This provides clients that are sealed off from the Internet a trusted agent that can access the Internet on their behalf. Once the client is properly configured, its user should not be aware of the proxy gateway.
A proxy gateway often runs on a firewall machine . Its main purpose is to act as a barrier to the threat of crackers . It may also be used to hide the IP addresses of the computers inside the firewall from the Internet if they do not use official registered network numbers .
Browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape can be configured to use a different proxy or no proxy for each URL access method (or " scheme ") - FTP , Gopher , WAIS , news , and HTTP .
Mosaic and proxy gateways .
Compare proxy server .
(1997-06-08)