Proxy Server Experiment and Network Security with Changing Nature of the Web

Abstract

The total reliance on internet connectivity and World Wide Web (WWW) based services is forcing many organizations to look for alternative solutions for providing adequate access and response time to the demand of their ever increasing users. A typical solution is to increase the bandwidth; this can be achieved with additional cost, but this solution does not scale nor decrease users perceived response time. Another concern is the security of their network. An alternative scalable solution is to deploy a proxy server to provide adequate access and improve response time as well as provide some level of security for clients using the network. While some studies have reported performance increase due to the use of proxy servers, one study has reported performance decrease due to proxy server. We then conducted a six-month proxy server experiment. During this period, we collected access logs from three different proxy servers and analyzed these logs with Webalizer a web server log file analysis program. After a few years, in September 2010, we collected log files from another proxy server, analyzed the logs using Webalizer and compared our results. The result of the analysis showed that the hit rate of the proxy servers ranged between 21%-39% and over 70% of web pages were dynamic. Furthermore clients accessing the internet through a proxy server are more secured. We then conclude that although the nature of the web is changing, the proxy server is still capable of improving performance by decreasing response time perceived by web clients and improved network security.

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“…The study reported in Reference 7 describes an experiment to evaluate the efficiency of proxy servers and the security they offer. Authors are particularly curious in portraying the evolving nature of the web, which has been impacted through the functionality of proxy servers and the level of protection they offered.…”

“…A detailed study of IDS can be found in Reference 9. As discussed in the References 7‐9, proxy servers, firewalls, and IDS also could not cope with the dynamic threats. In other context, Proxy servers like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and firewalls are centralized systems records issues in terms of network connection and minimal possibility of backup, but there is no graceful degradation of the system.…”