TITLE:
Proxy Server Experiment and Network Security with Changing Nature of the Web
AUTHORS:
Olatunde Abiona, Adeniran Oluwaranti, Ayodeji Oluwatope, Surura Bello, Clement Onime, Mistura Sanni, Lawrence Kehinde
KEYWORDS:
Proxy Server, Network Security, Hit Ratio, Webalizer, Proxy Log Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences,
Vol.7 No.12,
December
4,
2014
ABSTRACT: The total reliance on internet connectivity
and World Wide Web (WWW) based services is forcing many organizations to look
for alternative solutions for providing adequate access and response time to
the demand of their ever increasing users. A typical solution is to increase
the bandwidth; this can be achieved with additional cost, but this solution
does not scale nor decrease users perceived response time. Another concern is
the security of their network. An alternative scalable solution is to deploy a proxy
server to provide adequate access and improve response time as well as provide
some level of security for clients using the network. While some studies have
reported performance increase due to the use of proxy servers, one study has
reported performance decrease due to proxy server. We then conducted a
six-month proxy server experiment. During this period, we collected access logs
from three different proxy servers and analyzed these logs with Webalizer a web
server log file analysis program. After a few years, in September 2010, we
collected log files from another proxy server, analyzed the logs using
Webalizer and compared our results. The result of the analysis showed that the
hit rate of the proxy servers ranged between 21% - 39% and over 70% of web
pages were dynamic. Furthermore clients accessing the internet through a proxy
server are more secured. We then conclude that although the nature of the web
is changing, the proxy server is still capable of improving performance by
decreasing response time perceived by web clients and improved network
security.