ELSA Cable manual Proxy servers

6Introducing the ELSA MicroLink Cable

Network operators can take advantage of this structure to provide regional content in addition to the Internet. This can be accomplished by setting up Web servers that do not need to be accessible from the Internet. These can then be used for special information services for network participants, such as the programs of local cinemas, regional news, information for clubs and special-interest groups, and so on—essentially, everything that is of interest to the regional cable network participants, but that might be superfluous on the Web.

Proxy servers

The network operator can also use local servers to speed up access to the Internet. These proxy servers are used for the intermediate storage of information from the Internet.

Proxy: Stand-inEvery page requested from the Internet by participants in the local cable network section is stored in this proxy server for a specific period of time. As a rule, the storage period on the proxy server is determined by the cable network operator. If another participant requests the same page, the proxy server can serve the page directly without having to find it on the Internet first.

This is generally beneficial, for example by speeding up downloads considerably. However, when calling up information subject to frequent changes such as stock prices, accessing the current Web page is usually a must. In such a case the version of the page stored on the proxy server can already be out of date or incorrect. If this could be relevant to you, please check with your network operators whether they deploy proxy servers. Clicking the Refresh button will download the current information directly from the Internet, however.

ELSA MicroLink Cable