Dumb question #123456

[Nuclear Krusader]

What is a "proxy"?

[DragonNOA1]

prox·y (prokse)
n. pl.prox·ies

1. A person authorized to act for another; an agent or substitute.
2. The authority to act for another.
3. The written authorization to act in place of another.

[Xayd]

In net terms, a sort of middle man between you and your destination. Using a proxy makes it appear as if you are the proxy, masking your actual IP address.

[Statica]

Or making your connection seem faster than it really is.

[Nuclear Krusader]

What is the purpouse of this deceiving, security?

[Iman74]

proxy server
A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

[Felix]

Hence, a proxy is something like the level 2 cache in your tin box. But running on the internet, not on the system bus.

[Nuclear Krusader]

But, what is its purpouse?
Security?
Faster surfing?
????

[Felix]

both.

Faster surfing: If the page you are looking for is in the proxy's cache it don't need to come slow around the world.

Security: All your requests are passed to the proxy server. It won't fulfill requests that are forbidden.