Proxy Server??

Kerry_20

Will a proxy server perform....Cached DNS information?

I don't think it will but i'm just making sure.

- Kerry

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Comments

janmike

Server functions are software based. Proxy servers cache frequently used web pages to speed up page acquisition over the Internet.

DNS servers cache domain names and their respective IP addresses so that a translation from name to address occurs.

You can install both functions on the same computer, but the proxy server will not perform DNS if it's only configured as a proxy server.

Hope this helps.

Webmaster

Actually, there are DNS proxy servers:

www.techexams.net/technotes/networkplus/internetconnections.shtml

DNS Proxy, caches DNS lookups initiated by clients. When an internal client needs to know the IP address for a domain name, i.e. www.techexams.net, it will send the request to the DNS Proxy (i.e. a NAT router), which will forward it to DNS server on the Internet or retrieve the info from its cache with previous lookups on disk.

garv221

Some versions of Wingate proxy even supply DNS & DHCP...Software is becoming so complex its hard to rule out all possibilities without research.

Webmaster

The confusion is often caused because when people hear/read 'proxy server' they often automatically assume it refers to a caching HTTP web proxy. As I wrote in the TechNotes:
"The word proxy means something that acts on behalf of another. In the context interesting to us a proxy can be many things, the most common being the web proxy server."

It's actually very common for a web proxy to also act as a DNS proxy. The internal clients do not have a routed IP connection to a DNS server on the Internet, hence cannot connect an external DNS server directly, the proxy has to act as an intermediate for the clients making requests to resolve the addresses of the websites they visit. Caching is often optional, but common as it saves bandwidth on the internet connection.