Web Proxy Servers (Web Infrastructure) [Paperback]

Ari Luotonen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 1997 | Series: Web Infrastructure

First book in new series focusing on web infrastructure issues. This is an area of major interest to folks managing large corporate networks who need to conserve bandwidth and ensure a high degree of security. For example, one of the biggest users of proxy server technology is Hewlett-Packard. H-P runs the largest corporate network in the world with over 100,00 nodes. Without a system of caching/proxy servers, H-P's Internet traffic would be unmanageable and unreliable. H-P uses the CERN proxy server developed by the author in local, regional and super caches.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Preface
Thanks, Ari. You're a fountain of information as usual.
Gregg Ulrich

During the four years that I have worked on the fast-evolving World Wide Web technology—specifically proxy servers—I have felt uneasy about the fact that no one has really had time to produce good documentation that would provide true insight and understanding of this great technology. We engineers who understand how things work are often just too busy to explain them to others. After all, an Internet year is just 52 days long, and the average release cycle tends to be less than nine (Earth) months. So many new features, so little time.
I've always taken great pride in promptly answering all the E-mail that I get. But there have been times when I have been completely overwhelmed by the number of messages and the span of questions that I have received. And I've realized that I have explained the same things over and over again in E-mail. If only there were a book that covered all these issues, people could just read it and receive the same answer I would give them anyway—and maybe learn a bit more and gain depth in their understanding about how things work, and why they work like that.
So one day I got an E-mail from Mary Franz at Prentice Hall asking if I'd be interesting in writing a book on Web proxy servers. Well, not being able to say "no" to more work, I said yes, sure, might as well. I have always found working on the Web to be rewarding. It's great to receive messages from the Internet, thanking and praising my efforts.

From the Back Cover

Make the most of your proxy servers!

Proxy servers are critical to the success of virtually every large Web and intranet site. But managing and optimizing them has always been a black art—until now. In Web Proxy Servers, the co-developer of the first proxy server, the CERN Proxy, explains the technology in depth—and shows how to optimize any proxy server in any environment.

Understand the basic architecture of proxy servers, and compare firewall proxy servers, departmental, personal and specialized proxies. Discover how proxy servers handle every major Internet protocol, including HTTP, FTP, Gopher, News, SSL, WAIS, Telnet and LDAP. Learn how to implement filtering by URLs or PICS content ratings. Review proxy server caching in unprecedented depth, including:

• Guaranteeing the freshness of cached documents
• Measuring and optimizing cache “hit ratios”
• On-demand and on-command caching
• Web-based advertising

Discover the best proxy security solutions, including encryption and authentication. Compare proxy server configuration for Web sites, intranets, extranets, and “DNS-deprived” environments. Get troubleshooting tips and sample auto-configuration scripts. Learn all you need to know to maximize performance, including:

• Estimating loads, establishing proxy hierarchies, choosing hardware and software
• Balancing loads with Round-Robin DNS, hash-function based proxy selection, CARP, ICP, and other methods
• Using reverse proxying effectively

Web Proxy Servers is a must-have resource for all Web and intranet administrators who care about performance and security.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (December 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0136806120
• ISBN-13: 978-0136806127
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,282,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's all here... almost!, July 19, 2000

By 

Jonathan M. Davis (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Web Proxy Servers (Web Infrastructure) (Paperback)

This book is written by the guy who practically invented the HTTP proxy server. It covers the HTTP proxying protocol and the history of its evolution very well and in very thorough detail. Unfortunately, while the book would be fantastic (5 stars) for any proxy administrator--overkill, perhaps--it isn't quite thorough enough for the developers. Right now I'm struggling with creating a proxy server in Java and the road block I've come across is with SSL support. While the requirements of the proxy server in an SSL handshake scenario is thoroughly listed in this book, there are no warnings or gotchas for the programmer to look out for in this area. In fact, there isn't any C/C++/Java source code in this book at all, only text, diagrams, and sample HTTP conversations.

The book is somewhat dated, but no worries, it covers HTTP 1.1 and below.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Succinct, thorough and utterly invaluable., August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Proxy Servers (Web Infrastructure) (Paperback)

As a proxy specialist in the tech. support field, I find Ari's book to be the definitive reference for the "nuts and bolts" of proxy servers. It contains a detailed overview of the http protocol, as well as explanations of such proxy functions as garbage collection, caching, reverse proxying and proxy arrays. Also, it gives real life case studies of proxy situations as well as troubleshooting tips. The lead programmer of Netscape's proxy server has written a concise, detailed reference for any proxy admin, webmaster or support tech.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Only good for beginners, November 29, 2001

By 

Robert Tsai (San Francisco, CA 94114) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Web Proxy Servers (Web Infrastructure) (Paperback)

This is a good book for beginners, but if you are a professional looking for any kind of deployment or reference material, you're probably better off saving your money and reading whitepapers available from any proxy vendor (CacheFlow, Inktomi, Network Appliance) web site.