Advice on proxy servers

[Guest]

Hello.

I have some questions for anyone knowledgable about running a proxy server
on a PC for a home network. With a current-generation PC, how much of a
performance hit would you expect on a 1.5MB cable connection compared to a
router? Can this be improved if the PC uses a dual-port network card -- one
port to the cable model and the other port to a hub? Are there any dual-port
network cards optimized to be used in conjunction with proxy server software?


Any other suggestions or recommended configurations?

Thanks - Dave

 

[Steve Winograd [MVP]]

Hello.

I have some questions for anyone knowledgable about running a proxy server
on a PC for a home network. With a current-generation PC, how much of a
performance hit would you expect on a 1.5MB cable connection compared to a
router? Can this be improved if the PC uses a dual-port network card -- one
port to the cable model and the other port to a hub? Are there any dual-port
network cards optimized to be used in conjunction with proxy server software?

Any other suggestions or recommended configurations?

Thanks - Dave

I'm sorry, but I have no experience with proxy servers on Windows XP.
They're harder to set up (especially on the client computers) than a
NAT router, such as XP's Internet Connection Sharing. So I use NAT.

I'd expect a NAT program to put a negligible load on a Windows XP
computer. Consider the hardware in my SMC7004BR external NAT router:
it has a 40 MHz CPU and less than 1 MB of RAM.

I don't think that a dual-port network card would help on a typical
home network. The cable connection, not the computer's NIC,
determines the maximum possible Internet speed. A typical NIC can run
at 60-70 Mb, and your cable connection runs at just 1.5 Mb.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com

 

[Guest]

Used proxy servers extensively in the days of dial-up, because it's much
easier to control spurious connections with a proxy than with a router.

Basically, proxies are more secure, and allow greater control, and ability
to log activity.

Two big issues are that they do not handle Java - this is a failing of Java
rather then the fault of the proxy - and they generally do not autoconfigure
in the way that a DHCP-equipped router does, so they call for some manual
config of the computers.

(They do handle Javascript, BTW, just not compiled java)

The MS proxy is a strange beast, the protocols it uses are like no other
proxy. Most others use 8080 as the HTTP port.

Proxies:

Analogx: Simple and barebones, does the job.

Jana Server: Sophisticated, and one of the best.

Proxomitron: Specialist proxy for advert-filtering, etc. No longer under
development bt that doesn't prevent its being used. Very effective as a
LAN-wide popup-blocker.

As for processor-load, with typical broadband or cable speeds they won't
make any significant impact on a modern server's resources. At a rough guess,
5% of processor-time and a few MB of RAM when maxed-out.