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OTHER
APPLICATIONS
Dear pkFamily Customer,
We have restructured our network
to provide much improved performance for various
applications. These improvements are already in
effect, regardless of the dial-up number
which you are using to access pkFamily.
Below is an explanation of the changes we have made, and
some information about how to configure your
applications for optimal performance.
What we
have done:
We have made some changes to the dial-up network
which eliminate the need for special proxy server
settings in most of your applications.
What this means to you:
This means that MOST applications will work with
pkFamily with little or no special configuration, and
the performance of these applications will be much
better.
In the past, most applications have required special
configuration in order to work with pkFamily, due to the
fact that we used multiple proxy servers.
With our recent network improvements, most
applications will work with no additional configuration
at all, while others require only the settings for our
internet filtering / http proxy server.
About proxy
servers:
In an enterprise that uses the Internet, such as pkFamily, a proxy server is a computer that acts as an
intermediary between a client (you) and the Internet so
that the enterprise can ensure security, administrative
control, and caching services.
A
proxy server receives a request for an Internet service
(such as a Web page request) from a user.
If it passes filtering requirements, the proxy
server looks in its local cache of previously downloaded
Web pages. If it finds the page, it returns it to the
user without needing to forward the request to the
Internet. If the page is not in the cache, the proxy
server, acting as a client on behalf of the user, uses
one of its own IP addresses to request the page from the
server out on the Internet. When the page is returned,
the proxy server relates it to the original request and
forwards it on to the user.
An
advantage of a proxy server is that its cache can serve
all users. If one or more Internet sites are frequently
requested, these are likely to be in the proxy's cache,
which will improve user response times.
To the user, the proxy server is
invisible; all Internet requests and returned responses
appear to be directly with the addressed Internet
server. In
actuality the proxy is not quite invisible; its server
name has to be specified as a configuration option to
the browser or certain other programs.)
Most applications will
allow you to enter special settings for our proxy
server. The
settings for our proxy server are:
Server: http-proxy.pkfamily.com
Port:
8572
In the past, most
applications have required other proxy server addresses,
such as secure.pkfamily.com, ftp-proxy.pkfamily.com,
socks-proxy.pkfamily.com, etc.
Since our network improvements have been made,
these proxy servers are no longer required.
The only proxy server setting that you may need
to enter is our http proxy, listed above in bold text.
Again, please note that only a
handful of applications will require this setting.
Most applications will require no special
configurations at all.
The
following is a list of programs we have tested which
will work with no additional configuration:
ICQ
AOL Instant Messenger
Yahoo Messenger
MSN Messenger
Most other messaging services
Napster
Quicktime
Norton Antivirus Live Update
The following
services will work with pkFamily, but require some
configuration:
WebFerret – Select CERN
proxy and enter http-proxy.pkfamily.com
port 8572
The
following services would not work with pkFamily at the
time of our testing:
(please note that most software
applications will undergo updates which may include
support for proxy servers)
CallWave internet answering
machine. As
of April, 2000, Callwave does not support proxy servers.
Go Express Search Engine. As of April, 2000, Go Express does not support proxy servers.
Gooey Chat tool.
This service does not work with proxy servers.
Important note:
If you have previously used applications listed
above, you should check the configuration of these
applications even though they may appear to be
working properly.
For optimal performance, the configuration should
match the links on this page.
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