Back To Basics: Troubleshooting Proxy Server 2.0

Thomas Shinder

One of the subjects that you must get acquainted
with in order to excel in any network environment, and on your Windows 2000 MCSE
exams, is that of proxy servers and firewalls. Microsoft has an exceptional
proxy server in their product Proxy Server 2.0. Although this product is getting
a little long in the tooth, and is about to be supplanted by Microsoft Security
and Internet Acceleration Server, it still remains a powerful ally on any
Microsoft network.

One of the subjects that you must get acquainted with in order to excel in any network environment, and on your Windows 2000 MCSE exams, is that of proxy servers and firewalls. Microsoft has an exceptional proxy server in their product Proxy Server 2.0. Although this product is getting a little long in the tooth, and is about to be supplanted by Microsoft Security and Internet Acceleration Server, it still remains a powerful ally on any Microsoft network.

What is Microsoft Proxy Server?

Microsoft Proxy Server can provide both inbound
and outbound security for an organization. In addition to its security features,
Proxy Server 2.0 is able to cache objects retrieved from the Internet. This
caching feature significantly improves the perceived client performance for
Internet access, and has the potential for reducing traffic both on the external
interface of the proxy server, and at the corporate network backbone.

The Proxy Server Services

Microsoft Proxy Server is actually a collection
of server services. Some of these services are dependent upon, or “run on
top of”, Microsoft Internet Information Server. The Proxy Server services
are:

• The Web Proxy Service
• The WinSock Proxy Service
• The SOCKS Proxy Service

Each of these services have capabilities and
requirements that are specific to that service. In addition, there are aspects
of the Proxy Server configuration which span all three of the Proxy Server
Services.