Version 4.0| Version 4.0 |
User's Guide |
1. Introduction and Overview
NetProxy is a proxy server and firewall system for Windows 95/98/Me or Windows NT/2000/XP. It allows many users to access the Internet simultaneously using a single connection of almost any kind (modem, ISDN, ADSL, cable-modem, leased-line, etc.). NetProxy can be run on any PC with an Internet connection, it does not need a dedicated computer.
The proxy server is the part of NetProxy that allows many computers on your network to share a single IP connection to the Internet. The firewall is the part that regulates which Internet sites people on your network can connect out to and which, if any, sites on the Internet can initiate connections to the computers on your network.
Internet applications communicate using the TCP/IP protocol suite, so you must install TCP/IP on each of the computers on your network that you wish to provide Internet access to.
Each of your computers must be assigned an IP address that is unique on your network. You can manually enter an IP address for each computer, or you can use NetProxy's built-in DHCP server to automatically assign suitable addresses. The IP addresses assigned to your computers do not need to be provided by your Internet Service Provider or registered with InterNIC because NetProxy effectively 'hides' these IP addresses from the Internet. The section "Configuring TCP/IP on your network computers" explains how to set up your network for use with NetProxy.
If you have a dial-up modem or ISDN connection to the Internet, you can configure NetProxy to automatically dial your Internet Service Provider when one of the computers on your network tries to connect to the Internet, and to drop the line when nobody is using the Internet. This ensures that any telephone or connect time charges are kept to an absolute minimum.