The use of a proxy server is more involved than just putting the server in place. It involves making decisions regarding the proxy server configuration and putting those choices into effect. There are several different pieces of proxy server configuration the need to be tweaked in order to make the proxy server work for you in an effective manor that suits the needs of your company.
Like any network infrastructure piece, the default out of the box configuration is not likely to work in such a way that your needs will be simultaneously met. The proxy server configuration will need be customized based on your network specifications, LAN settings and IP scheme. These basic proxy server configuration settings would be needed just to get the proxy server to properly speak to and interface with the computers on the network.
Beyond basics, the proxy server configuration will tell the server how you would like the traffic that crosses the proxy service to be handled. This traffic is affected by proxy server configuration in terms of regulation, monitoring and logging. The proxy server configuration can be set to filter certain content. Web sites containing inappropriate language, racy images and other undesirable content can be set to not be displayed by proxy server configuration set to block sites of a certain rating level.
Also, the sites being visited can be logged by setting proxy server configuration to record sites visited. Sites will be logged along side the machine name and IP address of the machine that viewed them, allowing you to know the sites specific users are visiting. This is obviously helpful in monitoring who visits either unprofessional sites, or who is making excessive use of the internet in general. All these settings are adjusted by spending some time working on proxy server configuration to perfect your proxy server integration to your network.
