The “Network Tab” is important to set if you are not running Netscape to provide your network access information. Use this tab to define the proxies you want to use for your various transport protocols (see Figure 2-2).
There are three proxies available on the “Network Tab”—HTTP, FTP, and Secure HTTPS—as well as the socks server. These proxy settings require you to specify a machine name or IP address, as well as the machine's port connection number in their relevant text field. The port connection number can be anything from 1 to 65535.
There are no defaults for proxies or socks, but the socks server port connection defaults to 1080 (see Figure 2-2).
A proxy is a server that acts as a web server for an entire domain behind a firewall. You can have more than one proxy per domain. Every connection to the Web goes through a proxy server. A proxy works by taking the connection from your Silicon Graphics web browser and making its own connection to the destination server. You can designate a proxy server for any of the transport protocols listed on the “Network Tab.” Proxies can also perform caching, high-level logging, and web access control.
You must enter a server name and port connection number for each protocol that you want to use as a proxy. You can use a different proxy server and port connection number for each protocol.
A socks server is another method of allowing users on systems behind a firewall to gain access to the web. It is used if no proxy is specified for a particular protocol, and it is not listed in the server exclusion box on the “Network Tab.”
Sometimes you will not want web access via the proxy (for example, when you are browsing within your company's intranet inside the firewall). Enter the domain names that you do not want to access using proxy in the gray proxy and socks exclusion text box on the “Network Tab.” You can list as many domains as you wish.