The most common Web Proxy scripts

Web proxies are commonly used to circumvent the access bans to certain sites or servers. Web proxy is a specialized software that relays users’ requests to specific page or data via its own server on its behalf.

In most cases, Web proxy is a web application, PHP or Perl script that is installed on the server. The most common applications of this kind are CGIProxy, PHProxy, Glype Proxy, Zelune, Cohula and others. This article describes their main features, highlights essential advantages and disadvantages.

1) As the name implies, CGIProxy is a CGI script for a proxy server that supports HTTP and FTP, as well as JavaScript, Flash, and SSL. This script has gained great popularity due to the simple configuration system as well as high configuration flexibility. F.e. all necessary changes can be made in text editor.

2) PHProxy script requires an external web server that supports the PHP scripting language. This proxy server is also very simple, and provides the ability to circumvent all sorts of network administrator’s restrictions. It’s advantages are relative ease of use and no significant additional requirements for computing power. Thus PHProxy script doesn’t guarantee total reliability and security of the channel.

3) Glype Proxy has a built-in cache in order to save resources on the server, which increases the performance of the website. Sophisticated support for JavaScript and Flash facilitate easier and faster work of web sites with a relatively small load on the user's computer, even when working with traditional "heavy" multimedia content. One important advantage of this script is considered to be the simplicity of its installation and use.

4) The Zelune Proxy script keeps aloof amid proxy servers due to the large number of settings for individual configuration. It enables using MySQL, whereby the Web proxy administrator can block specific users on a geographical basis. There is also the possibility to block unwanted advertisements or replace it with another one.

5) Web developers call Cohula the best alternative for Glype proxy scrypt. Many fixes and improvements were made since the first version appearedm These improvements make the entire site content to be displayed correctly. All standard mediafiles such as flash and other less widespread types (amf, json, etc.) are supported. Access to webresources is provided only under webproxie’s domain.