Web proxy usage on end-user machines

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net>]

I've been using web proxies at various places in my network for quite a 
while, both because of the advantages in network lag and bandwidth, and 
because they're useful for caching.

However, the other major reason I used to run one on my laptop was this: 
when I move the machine from one place to another (different IP, gateway, 
dns, upstream cache, etc.), I only have to change the configuration of the 
web proxy, not every HTTP agent I use (netscape, lynx, etc.).  When I still 
roamed between bunches of places, I had scripts to change my location, and 
one of the things they would do would be to hack at squid.conf and restart 
it.

Now, end-user machines could also benefit from this, laptops moreso than 
desktops.  Put a small proxy (tinyproxy: http://www.ninsei.com/tinyproxy/) 
on the machine, taking exceedingly small amounts of resources, and point 
all the local agents to this proxy Out Of The Box.  Then you have *one* 
system-level utility that can re-point this proxy wherever necessary.  
Voila!, you have a dynamically reconfigurable system that doesn't take 
forever to reconfigure.  With a roaming setup for laptops, it could easily 
be totally automatic.


     Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect
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       /  \                SEUL: Simple End-User Linux -
      |    | M E G A            Creating a Linux distribution
      _\  /_                         for the home or office user