topic Re: How proxy server works, in Operating System - HP-UX

How proxy server works,

Chakravarthi — Fri, 05 Sep 2003 15:46:20 GMT

Hi,

when you try to browse a site, proxy server will ask you for username and password for authentication, once the authentication is done, it'll allow you to browse, once you are authenticated, from the same window you can browse multiple sites, it wont ask for authentication again and again, the moment you try to browse by in a different window it'll ask you for authentication again........

so how the server will know i'm browsing from different,,,

how the proxy server works.. and how the authentication works,,,

any help???

thanks
chakri

Re: How proxy server works,

Steven E. Protter — Fri, 05 Sep 2003 15:50:10 GMT

When you have authenticated to a particular web site, a cookie, a little bit of data is placed in your browser which enables you to browse web sites compatible with that authentication.

Its the web site, not the proxy server.

SEP

Re: How proxy server works,

Sundar_7 — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:22:41 GMT

Steven..I guess u misunderstood his question.

Once u authenticate urself to the CHAP that the browser displays, you can basically create kind of child browsers by pressing cntl-N and if u are browsing using the child browsers :-) then u dont have to authenticate urself again. This is true even for websites that dont use cookies.

Chakri..though I understand ur question,I may not be able to give u a concrete answer since I am not a windows internal guy.

Going with Unix, when u press Cntl-N and open another instance of the browser, I guess the newly opened browser shares the same data area as the parent one so only u r not asked for authentication again. This is just my guess work.

Re: How proxy server works,

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 01:36:35 GMT

Hi Chakri,

It's in the browser. Though I am not familiar with the exact mechanism, I will try to give you some scoop on it.

Every request has to go through the proxy server. First time, the browser prompts you for username and password, After the successful connection, it will keep them encoded in it's memory. Subsequent requests will be sent with an autorization header that contains the username and the password information. Proxy server extracts that information. So, when you open a new browser (not a new window), the same has to be followed again.

On the other hand, websites keep this information stored in cookies on your system. So, next time when you access the website URL, the code will ask the browser to read the cookie so that the authentication is done automatically.

-Sri