Proxy Server Web Content Caching: Transparent Proxy FAQ

When your computer accesses a web server, not directly but through a third party proxy, you’re using a proxy. If the proxy transmits data between your computer and the web server without any modification or concealment of data, it is called a “transparent proxy.” What is a transparent proxy? It is a proxy server that stands as a forwarding service for you when you are surfing. If you ask for a web page, file, video, connection, etc. it will get it for you. If you want to upload a file, send a message, etc. it will forward it for you. It is “transparent” because it doesn’t hide what it’s doing. It tells the web server: “Hello, I’m acting as proxy for so-so [your IP address here], so please give me the data so I can forward it back to them.” What use is a transparent proxy? A transparent proxy is useful for caching popular web content. Your browser may already be configured to cache your most frequently visited websites. But a transparent proxy can go further by caching not only the content you’ve gotten before, but also the data other users on that proxy have accessed before as well. What use is caching popular web content? It eases Internet traffic and makes the work easier for the servers. Picture this: There is a road that all delivery trucks use to be able to deliver chocolate drinks to your area everyday. Now instead of ordering chocolate drinks from far off and having the trucks deliver them all the time, how about making the drinks a nearby factory using the exact same recipe? It would let you get the goods faster, and it would also free up the road and give the trucks less work to do. That’s what a transparent proxy does. It caches popular web content in its cache so there’s no need to use the information highway (outside Internet) unless necessary. How does a transparent proxy work? Every time you make a request for data, the proxy will check its cache first to see if the same content is already there. If it is popular among other users on the proxy, it will probably be there. If it is, the transparent proxy will get the file from the cache and send it to you right away