A proxy is a gateway program with which request can be passed
through a firewall.
A proxy can store all incoming documents in a cache.
By redirecting
MOMspider
or WebCopy
through a cache, local copies are kept that are available to all users of
the local organization.
A proxy is completely transparent to the browser. However, MOMspider or WebCopy must instruct the proxy to perform a conditional get for each document to ensure that new copies are loaded when necessary.
The WWW server from CERN (available through the World Wide Web
Organization at http://www.w3.org/
can be used as a proxy and cache.
The Lagoon cache is a stand-alone
proxy, available at
ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/infosystems/www/lagoon-0.23.tar.gz/.