4.1 Proxy Addresses

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile

4.1 Proxy Addresses

As with all other Internet services, such as mail and FTP, a proxy server has an address comprised of a hostname (or IP address) and a port number. However, unlike most other services, proxies do not have a standard default port number. While it is generally sufficient to say, "connect to the FTP server at ftp.isp.net ," it is not sufficient to say, "use the proxy at proxy.isp.net ." Thus, proxy addresses always appear with explicit port numbers . Typically, they are written together, separated by a colon , for example:

 172.16.4.1:8080 squid.ircache.net:3128 proxy1.bigisp.net:80 

Although there is no default port number, most proxies use one of the following ports: 3128, 8080, 80, or 1080. Most of these are some variation of "80" because that is the default for HTTP. Port number 3128 was arbitrarily selected as the default for the Harvest software, from which Squid evolved. Although port 80 is normally associated with origin servers, it is also popular for proxy servers, probably because the CERN server was able to function simultaneously as both an origin server and as a proxy server. Today's web caches have the ability to listen for requests on multiple ports at the same time. I don't recommend using port 80 for proxy servers unless absolutely necessary. Usually, we identify network applications by port numbers, and the shared approach makes it difficult to separate origin server traffic from proxy traffic.

only for RuBoard - do not distribute or recompile