Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

What are the benefits of using a proxy?

Also, if there is a benefit does anybody have a list of all of them?

Many thanks,

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Lots of info about what is a proxy and what they do and a list HERE

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Benefits - for you, very little. In fact, when NTL's proxies go belly up, as they frequently do, you either 'lose' part of the web or you have to manually change to a different proxy that's not broken.

Benefits to NTL - well, keeping a copy of the most popular web pages within their own network makes their service cheaper to run, because they have to access the internet less often to retrieve the pages you ask for. I suppose you could argue that if it's cheaper for NTL to run the service, then it costs you less as well, but in the absence of any evidence that they pass on these savings, it's arguable.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

*Moved to Proxy Discussion forum*

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

If the proxies are working OK they will cache URL requests and make the contents available to anyone using them. That means that the information will be stored much nearer to you than the server which you would normally get it from and there would not be any bandwidth restrictions on how fast you can download from the proxy which might apply if requested from the source server. Congestion on peering links can also be avoided if the information is available in the proxy cache.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

I don't know how (or how often) the web pages on the proxy servers are updated, but I used to get "stale" pages sometimes when visiting ntl's own website.

I had to use Ctrl + F5 to get the latest pages.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

AFAIK this is down to the web page designer - I think there is something you can code into a page that should indicate how often it is updated.

For dynamic sites like this, I think it's the case that the proxies are effectively useless and serve only to slow performance down. Pages are updated all the time and the server is in the US ... page requests therefore go from the user to the proxy, which has then to go to the server and retrieve the page, before returning it to the user.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Have you got IE set to check for newer versions of web pages automatically at every visit?

Tools>Internet Options>Settings (from within I.E)

HTH.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

The lists maintained by these here forums are more up to date:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/forum/article.php?c=16

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

For static sites located far away ie. usa news sites there should be an advantage in page loading speed. For dynamic sites especially if in the uk their will likel ybe a detriment in performance. However there can be other problems as well, the proxies often go belly up where sites will timeout etc. you cannot use your own dns servers to lookup www dns requests since the proxies will use their own and there are some sites that are incompatible eg. ebuyer and sites that have anti flood settings and ban ntl proxies.

The advantages to ntl as already stated is they save a shedload on transit costs.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

I can't see that option. Do you mean the settings in the "Advanced" tab?

Using IE 6.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

What you're after is:
Tools > Internet Options > General Tab > Settings > "Check for newer versions of stored pages:"

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Hmm...that is already set to "Automatic".

Doesn't that just compare the page on the proxy to the page stored on the hard drive temporary internet folder, rather than comparing the proxy page to the source server page?


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Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Slightly off topic here but can you have these proxies diabled? If so, how?

Thanks in advance!:)

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Change your ISP is the best advice I can give. Seriously.

Unless the proxies are severely screwed and NTL take them offline for a bit in a certain area, there is no way to disable them.

There are numerous workarounds, not all of which work or do not provide the best performance.

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

Yep, that's exactly what it does... there is no way (that I know of) for ensuring you don't ever get outdated content that is cached on a proxy by doing something locally - apart from not using a proxy where possible ;)

Re: Using a proxy - what are the benefits?!
 

The only way I know off is setup your own proxy server remotely and use that to access pages, and set it up to always not cache content which is what I have done. Make sure you dont use a http port otherwise the traffic will still get intercepted.