Understanding Proxy Servers: Setup Your Own Proxy Server?

Understanding Proxy Servers: Setup Your Own Proxy Server?
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Save On Setup Costs

For the adventurous, setting up your own proxy server is not as difficult as it might first appear. A proxy server could be necessary to protect your IP address from being broadcast, and it can also be used as a filter to prevent illegal entry.

Therefore, there are various advantages to setting up your own proxy server, but of course the most important benefit has to be the costs associated with it. For someone who is new to computing then it would be beneficial to have a technician create and set up the server for them. However, anyone who believes they have an intermediate understanding of computing and how proxy servers operate, should be able to forgo the costs of hiring a computer technician. Not only will this save money, but it also saves the time necessary to bring in your computer or have the technician come to you.

Troubleshoot Any Problems

It is a good idea to setup your own proxy server because this will make it easier to troubleshoot and fix any problems if something goes wrong. The best way to understand the technology associated with a new proxy server is to actually perform the work required to set it up, maintain, and troubleshoot. This way the user can tweak their proxy settings as needed. By setting the server up yourself, it will also ensure that the downtime is minimized.

Choose Your Own Hardware & Software

Another reason why it is a great idea to set up your own proxy server is it allows the ability to choose your own hardware and software. The specifics for your proxy server can be created completely to your liking from the beginning to end by choosing hardware and software suitable for the task to be accomplished. Therefore, the basic hardware requirements should be at minimum a Pentium III with at least 512 MB of RAM.

The type of software used will be the actual proxy server and this will depend on what the user would like to use the proxy for. The very basic software to use and setup is simply a matter of creating a web proxy. The proxy to be created can be accomplished by using a simple web hosting package. Be assured that this is the easiest setup, and would allow the user the option to setup the proxy server from their own Web site using a dedicated script.

Setting up proxy software is available to anyone with at least intermediate computer skills, but creating a proxy server does require at least good software and hardware to make the connection. For example, anyone wanting a full support should have it compatible for software such as SMTP proxy, SOCKS, and POP3, etc. If this is a simple proxy to connect to the Internet, then it is just as basic as choosing either free or paid software to use.

This post is part of the series: Understanding Proxy Servers

This series will describe everything you wanted to know about proxy servers.

  1. What are Proxy Servers Used For?
  2. Understanding Proxy Servers: Should I Setup My Own Proxy Server?
  3. Understanding Proxy Servers: Top New Proxies
  4. Understanding Proxy Servers: Top 10 Free Online Proxy Servers
  5. Understanding Proxy Servers: Business Proxy Servers