10.3.3.3.1. What is a proxy server?

Companies and organizations often want their users to use a proxy server. Especially in environments with lots of users, a proxy server can enable faster downloads of web pages. The proxy server stores web pages. When a user asks for a web page that has already been requested previously, the proxy server will give that page to the user directly, so that s/he does not need to get it from the Internet, which would take longer. Of course, measures can be taken so that the proxy server does a quick check and always serves the most recent version of a page. In some environments, usage of the proxy server is compulsory, in other environments you may have the choice whether or not to use it.

10.3.3.3.2. Proxy configuration

If you have the proxy server name and port, it should be rather obvious to feed that information into your browser. However, many (command line) applications depend on the variables http_proxy and ftp_proxy for correct functioning. For your convenience, you might want to add a line like the following to your ~/.bashrc:

export http_proxy=https://username:password@proxy_server_name:port_number

For instance:

export http_proxy=https://willy:Appelsi3ntj3@proxy:80

If you do not need to give a username and password, simply leave out everything before the "@" sign, this sign included.