Proxy. A person, organization, or server that has been granted authorization to act as a substitute or agent for another.
Commonly used by anonymous web site administrators or by corporations, the proxy server allows a degree of privacy and, especially, control over what is communicated to/from the internet and their employees. Check the link on the left-side for more details...
With a unique IP Address, individuals or organizations wishing for privacy ultimately need to find a method of masking that IP. Todays common solution is to access a server that will act as a proxy - you, the anonymous web surfer will access the proxy server which will request what site you wish to reach, the proxy server will then go to that site to retrieve the web page and return it to you. As the middleman, the proxy server becomes the identifying IP address for the site you wish to reach. Check the link on the left-side for more details...
Proxy Servers, By Proxy Browsers etc.
While the original focus of this was as a starter point regarding Proxy technology, the concept of substituting one thing for another has many uses in the world. Whether you are a corporate IT department, web site developer, anonymous web surfer, shoe shopper, statistics fellow, or java developer you've come to the right starting point regarding all variations of PROXY. Check the links on the left to learn more about the many specific kinds of Proxy.