What is Squid?
What is Junkbuster?
How do I use VNI's proxies?
How do I stop using VNI's proxies?
What is a pac script?
How do I configure manually?
What is an HTTP proxy?
When you use a web browser (such as Netscape's Communicator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer) to view web pages from the Internet, the browser uses HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol) to request the text and images from the remote server. These requests are made directly from your browser to the remote machine. HTTP also allows you to use an intermediary to make the requests on your behalf. Such an intermediary is known as a proxy server.
When configured to use a proxy, your browser makes HTTP requests to the proxy instead of going directly to the remote host. In turn, the proxy makes the same request on your behalf. The idea was developed originally to allow folks working on a private network hiding behind a secure firewall egress through the firewall to HTTP servers on the outside. The proxy was part of the firewall and its use would further enhance security by disguising the origin of the HTTP request.
This idea has been elaborated upon in recent years to provide other enhancements to HTTP. At VNI we are running two such proxies for customer use. One is a performance proxy, Squid. The other is a privacy proxy, Junkbuster.
What is Squid?
Squid is a high speed caching proxy. It's purpose is to speed up the downloading of web pages to your computer. We have configured our Squid proxy with several hundred megabytes of cache space and plenty of memory.
Every time an HTTP request is made of the Squid proxy, it first checks its own cache to see whether it already has a current copy of the requested page. If so, Squid does not bother to waste time downloading the same data again; it simply sends you your request.
If it does not have local copy of the data, our Squid is peered with other nearby Squids of which it makes the same request. If it can find the data nearby, it will delivery it to your computer faster than if your browser had made the request directly.
Squid does its work very fast; so if it is unable to find a local copy of the pages you have requested, it does not cause your request to take any longer than it would have otherwise.
What is Junkbuster?
is a commercial organization whose mission is to reduce the amount of
junk in our lives. Their website makes for interesting
reading. Amongst other things they have authored an HTTP proxy. The Internet
Junkbuster Proxy is primarily an advertisement filter. It attempts
to recognize those portions of web pages which are advertising and it
cancels your browser's request to download the ad.
The Junkbuster proxy also works to increase your privacy. It destroys most cookies, and deletes or modifies a number HTTP headers containing information about you.
How do I use VNI's proxies?
VNI customers (others are blocked) can elect to use Squid alone, or Junkbuster combined with Squid.
The easiest and best way to configure your browser to use our
proxies is to take advantage of our pac (Proxy
Automatic Configuration) scripts. The two script URL's are:
http://www.vineyard.net/vni/squid.pac
http://www.vineyard.net/vni/junkbuster.pac
The above are not links because, sadly, you have to type (or copy/paste) them into your browser's configuration.
For version 3.0 versions of Netscape's browsers on Windows, MacOS, or UNIX:
- select Options->Network Preferences...
- select Proxies tab
- select the radio button labeled Automatic Proxy Configuration
- type the URL (above) for the proxy configuration of your choice
- close the configuration dialog box
For version 4.0 and later versions of Netscape's browsers on Windows, MacOS, or UNIX:
- select Edit->Preferences...
- expand the Advanced tag
- select Proxies
- select the radio button labeled Automatic Proxy Configuration
- type the URL (above) for the proxy configuration of your choice
- close the configuration dialog box
No version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer on the MacOS currently support automatic configuration. You will have to do it manually. Maybe version 5.x, but as of this writing, it is still in beta.
For version 3.0 of Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows:
- Open your Internet control panel
- Select the Advanced tab
- Click the Settings... button in the Dial-Up Settings box
- Check Use automatic configuration script
- Type or paste the URL (above) for the proxy script of your choice
- OK your way out of the configuration dialogs
For version 5.0 of Microsoft's Internet Explorer on Windows:
- Open your Internet Properties control panel
- Select the Connections tab
- Click the Settings... button in the Dial-Up Settings box
- Check Use automatic configuration script
- Type or paste the URL (above) for the proxy script of your choice
- OK your way out of the configuration dialogs
How do I stop using VNI's proxies?
Retrace your steps when you added the proxy. If you are using an automatic configuration script, you generally only have to uncheck an item labeled Use automatic configuration, or select a radio button lableled No Proxies. Internet Explorer 3 is the notable exception, you have to erase the URL of the configuration script from the automatic configuration dialog box.
What is a pac script?
A pac (proxy automatic configuration) script is a short program which will set your browser to use particular operating settings. It is written in Javascript. Our two scripts perform simple tests to try and be sure that the proxy is running; and if so, will set the browser to use them.
If you configure your browser to use a pac script, it will attempt to download a fresh copy of the script everytime you start using your browser. This is a nice feature because if we make modifications to our proxies, your browser will pick up the new changes next time you run it.
How do I configure manually?
You have to know more about what you are doing to configure use of our proxies manually. Configuring the various browsers manually is too involved to be supported in this document. Suffice to say that the documentation for the various alternative browsers (Lynx, Opra, ICapp, Mozilla, etc.) should discuss how they support the use of proxies.
Our Junkbuster supports the HTTP protocol on host proxy1.vineyard.net, port 12080. Our Squid supports HTTP, FTP (only as an http request), and gopher on host proxy1.vineyard.net, port 3128. So when configuring your browser, you might set HTTP traffic to 12080, and FTP & gopher to 3128 in order to take best advantage of both our proxies.