Proxy Servers

[pardsbane at offthehill.org (Josh Pollak)]

On Mar 4, 2005, at 12:58 PM, Kevin D. Clark wrote:

>
>> I do get the idea that the university would require a proxy for users
>> on its internal network to access the web.  But is it really sensible
>> to do it the other way around, or is it as clueless as it looks to me
>> right now?

I know at least three major university libraries do this. The Proxy's 
generally require authentication, and the better ones are configured 
via an automatic proxy config file that is available at a URL, and 
tells the browser only to route requests to the library URL's through 
the proxy. This provides the library an easy way to control access to 
paid content only to the university community.

The better ones don't route regular web traffic through the proxy, 
though the proxy settings invariably cause problems in certain 
situations. I can't remember right now why, but every once in a while I 
have to go disable the proxy for a bit, then re-enable it.

-Josh