User's Guide
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Version 1.1 User's Guide |
| Introduction |
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Welcome to WebDoubler, the best way to accelerate and manage Internet use for workgroups. Acting as a Web proxy server, WebDoubler can improve Web performance, maximize your bandwidth, block inappropriate content, control Web usage, track access, and more. WebDoubler does this from a single Mac OS computer on your network, and only requires a few simple configuration steps in the Web browser on each of your workstations.
Without WebDoubler, Web browsers on your network view Web pages, retrieve graphics, download files, etc. by connecting to remote Web servers directly. In other words, the browser initiates a direct TCP/IP link to the Web server containing the desired page, graphic, or file (hereafter called an "object"). This connection is made by "hopping" from your local network, through a router over your Internet connection to your ISP, and then on to the Internet and the remote Web server.
When you add WebDoubler, clients on your LAN no longer connect directly to remote Web servers. Each browser on your LAN will be configured to use WebDoubler as a proxy server. Once this change has been made, browsers will connect to WebDoubler, not the remote server, every time they request an object from the Web. WebDoubler, in turn, will make the request of the remote Web server on the client's behalf. As WebDoubler receives the response from the remote server, it will then pass the data back to the client, transparently and seamlessly providing full and uninterrupted Web access.
Because clients make every single Web request through WebDoubler, the WebDoubler computer essentially becomes the Internet to all of the browsers on your LAN. This opens up a variety of powerful options for improving Internet access and managing Web usage. For example, WebDoubler includes a caching module that stores frequently accessed Web objects used by the Web surfers on your network. Once stored in its RAM and disk cache, WebDoubler can serve these objects directly from the cache. Since a typical ethernet LAN is almost seven times faster than a T1 leased line and more than seventy times faster than 128k ISDN, cached objects will be delivered very quickly. This not only provides Web surfers with near-instantaneous access of frequently accessed files, but reduces network traffic over your Internet connection, leaving expensive bandwidth available for additional requests.
Because WebDoubler sees all of the Web requests from your LAN clients, other management capabilities are possible. The basic WebDoubler package includes the ability to log all Web activity and password protect Web usage. WebDoubler can also review each request made and permit or reject the transaction before it even begins. WebDoubler includes a module that implements the "Platform for Internet Content Selection", or PICS, which allows you complete control over rating and blocking the content downloaded over your Internet connection. PICS is the leading standard for content rating, and is supported by a number of organizations and rating services.
Additional capabilities are also possible using this technology, which is why many of WebDoubler's features, including caching, filtering, authentication and logging are implemented as plug-ins to a core application. The robust plug-in architecture makes it possible for you to tailor WebDoubler to your needs as new features and functions are developed by Maxum and third parties. Watch the Maxum Web site for up to date information on new modules that perform entirely new functions to improve Web access for every client on your network.
Important Note: This guide does not completely cover the general concepts, optimization techniques, and low level details of Web proxy server use. For an excellent general purpose discussion of proxy servers and their use, we highly recommend the book "Web Proxy Servers", by Ari Luotonen.
| Copyright © 1999 Maxum Development Corporation http://www.maxum.com/ |
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