HTTP Proxy

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What Does HTTP Proxy Mean?

An HTTP Proxy serves two intermediary roles as an HTTP Client and an HTTP Server for security, management, and caching functionality. The HTTP Proxy routes HTTP Client requests from a Web browser to the Internet, while supporting the caching of Internet data.

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Techopedia Explains HTTP Proxy

Proxy server advantages include:

  • Maintaining identity anonymity as a security precaution.
  • Accelerating caching rates.
  • Facilitating access to prohibited sites.
  • Enforcing access policies on certain websites.
  • Allowing a site to make external server requests.
  • Avoiding security controls.
  • Bypassing Internet filtering for access to prohibited content.
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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.