In order to effectively use a proxy server, you must configure proxy settings that will govern all aspects of the server operation. The inherent functionality of a proxy is to provide internet connectivity to systems behind a firewall by browsing on their behalf. Beyond that very basic use, there are additional capabilities you can configure proxy to take advantage of. Since the traffic of web sites is being handed off by the server, that traffic can be intercepted and monitored in transit.
This allows the close monitoring of the nature of internet use crossing the proxy server. The web sites being visited can be logged against individual computers, as well as throughput and time spent browsing by each user. In the same vein of monitoring usage, web sites can be blocked entirely if you configure proxy to do so. Generally, this takes place based on a commonly accepted rating system. Keywords can also trigger blocking of the source web site if such a feature is activated during the process to configure proxy.
To configure proxy, the configuration utility for the proxy server being used must be launched. There are different platforms that provide proxy functionality and have unique configuration methods, but the resulting product is of a competitive operation. The web browsers of connecting computers point to the internal IP address used to configure proxy. Those computers then make a request to the proxy when a user enters a web address, at which point the proxy server uses DNS to identify the location of the servers for a given site. Data is then transferred back and forth between the site and the computer without the end computer ever coming into contact with the outside word. This keeps the browsing experience for the end users far more safe and secure by preventing the transfer of any harmful or undesired data to their machines.
